Article · AI translation
Thanks to IT Home reader 华南吴彦祖 for the tip!
IT Home reported on November 5 that Nokia released its Global Network Traffic Report 2026-2035 on November 4, local time.
The report says that future networks will need to serve not only human users but also, to an increasing extent, various connected machines; artificial intelligence will drive greater uplink demand, faster response times, and more processing closer to users and devices.
Nokia predicts that by 2035, artificial intelligence will drive about 44% of global network traffic, while total monthly global network traffic will grow nearly fourfold from 2026 to approximately 3,789 EB (exabytes; 1 EB = 1024 PB = 1024² TB).
The growing prevalence of AI agents and connected machines will challenge traditional network architectures that primarily handle downlink traffic and significantly increase demand for upload bandwidth and real-time interaction capabilities. By 2035, more than 90% of the data traffic from physical AI applications, including robots and intelligent connected vehicles that interact with their surroundings in real time, is expected to be generated on network uplinks.
IT Home notes that, although the current baseline is small, agentic AI traffic is expected to reach 160 times its 2026 level by 2035; over the same period, physical AI traffic is expected to reach 105 times its 2026 level. The computing workloads behind these projections place varied demands on networks, ranging from large-volume batch uploads to continuous, highly time-sensitive connections.
Beyond artificial intelligence, the report also points out that, as the number of connections and data usage surge, fixed wireless access (FWA) will account for more than one-third of total consumer cellular network traffic by 2035, further expanding cellular networks’ central role in home broadband beyond traditional mobile services.