Surprise! Cisco data says we still use a lot of broadband - mostly for video

Lots of users. Lots of devices. Lots of video. This is the formula that will lead to global Internet traffic reaching an estimated total of 1.6 zettabytes in 2018 -- or 13 times the total Internet traffic from 2008.

A zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes, which in itself is almost meaningless to most people. The figure, provided by Cisco as part of its annual visual networking index, is part of an effort to track the growth of the Internet and overall IP traffic.

Cisco has been doing this for nine years, and is generally sound when it comes to forecasting the overall traffic (its more granular estimates can be less accurate). Besides the zettabytes, video and the growing constellation of devices are the star of the 2014 forecast.

Cisco estimates that video will comprise 79 percent of all IP traffic in 2018, up from 65 percent in 2013, and that people will own an average of 2.7 devices, up from 1.7 in 2013. About 52 percent of the global population, or 4 billion people, will be online.