Nokia report forecasts massive surge in global network traffic by 2034

A report from Nokia, prepared by Bell Labs Consulting, predicts that global network traffic will increase between three and seven times by 2034. The projections are divided into three scenarios: a conservative growth of 13% annually reaching 2,277 exabytes, a moderate growth of 16% reaching 3,096 exabytes, and an aggressive growth of 22% reaching 4,878 exabytes.

Artificial Intelligence is identified as a primary driver of this demand. One forecast suggests AI could account for approximately 44% of global network traffic over the next decade. The rise of autonomous agents, robots, and connected vehicles is expected to shift traffic patterns, requiring more uplink-heavy and low-latency networks. Specifically, physical AI applications are forecast to increase their network traffic 105-fold, while agentic AI traffic could grow 160-fold.

To accommodate these changes, the report suggests a shift in processing. While central cloud infrastructure will remain dominant, edge and metro core networks are expected to serve 36% of AI-native traffic by 2035 to meet demands for lower latency and data sovereignty. In a moderate scenario for 2034, fixed home access is expected to concentrate 58% of traffic, followed by the enterprise and industrial segments at 17.1%.