North America and Latin America achieved noticeable progress on fixed and mobile data networks, identifying facts, fads, and future trends that will shape the Internet’s future.

Here is a highlight on the fixed access and mobile networks in both Latin America and North America for 2016:

Mobile Networks in North America

Fixed Access

• Real-Time Entertainment (comprised of streaming video and audio) is responsible for over 71% of downstream bytes during the peak period in 2016.
• By the end of 2020, North America is expected to be the first region to surpass the 80% of downstream traffic streaming threshold.
• Netflix is the pioneer in peak period traffic with a downstream traffic rate reaching 35.2% in 2016.
• YouTube ranks at the second place in both downstream (17.53%) and upstream (13.13%).
• Amazon Video still holds only a fraction of the bandwidth share as it now accounting for 4.3% of peak downstream traffic, making it the third-ranked downstream application in the region.

Mobile Access

• Real-Time Entertainment traffic continues to be by far the most dominant traffic category, achieving almost 40% of the downstream bytes on the network.
• YouTube estimated for 19.8% of peak downstream traffic and over the past year saw that increase to 20.9%.
• Facebook and HTTP Web Browsing round out the top three applications, with Facebook observing a slight year-over-year decrease in share, now accounting for 14% of traffic.

Mobile Networks in Latin America

Fixed Access

• YouTube ranks at the top applications of peak downstream traffic (28.5%), more than doubling the second-ranked application (HTTP).
• Netflix continues to be the clear bandwidth share leader in the paid streaming video market in Latin America.

Mobile Access

• The amount of encrypted data on mobile networks in Latin America is slightly above levels observed in North America, as encrypted data totaled with approximately two-thirds of all traffic.
• Real-Time Entertainment is the largest driver of downstream mobile usage, accounting for 34.8% of peak downstream traffic.
• YouTube estimated for 26.09% of peak downstream traffic, followed by Facebook with a rate of 22.92%
• Facebook accounted for 30.49% of peak upstream traffic, followed by WhatsApp with a rate of 15.76%.

A Figure That Shows The Top 10 Peak Period Applications.