South African Internet traffic boom

Internet traffic refers to the amount of data moving across the network at any time. This includes all forms of communication between devices connected to the Internet.

This can be measured across the entire Internet, a specific geographic region, or a specific network of devices.

For instance, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) reported that its Electronic Communications Survey found the country’s Internet traffic reached over 3.2Tbps.

It reports this figure as total international Internet bandwidth capacity, which can be broken down into international incoming and outgoing Internet bandwidth.

The outgoing traffic comprises most of the total capacity, 2.3Tbps, as it encompasses the data received by local devices from international sources.

On the other hand, the outgoing traffic, 967,075 Mbps (967 Gbps), refers to the traffic generated by data sent internationally from local devices.

According to the Icasa report, South Africa’s total Internet traffic increased by just over 185% since 2020, when it sat at 1.1Tbps

The most significant year-on-year increase since then was between 2021 and 2022, when traffic increased by 58% to 2.1Tbps.

However, it’s important to note that Internet traffic measurements can vary based on how and who measures them.

For instance, South Africa’s biggest Internet exchange, NAPAfrica, recorded peak Internet traffic of 4.5Tbps in 2024 — over 1Tbps more than Icasa reported.

An Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is physical and logical infrastructure that lets organisations, network operators, content delivery networks, and cloud service providers interconnect and exchange traffic.

Therefore, NAPAfrica, owned by data centre provider Teraco, provides another perspective as to the magnitude of the country’s Internet traffic.

It has also seen significant growth since 2020, when its traffic stood at 1.5Tbps, meaning it has grown by 200%.

The IXP announced in March that it hit peak traffic of 5Tbps earlier this year, a 233% increase over the past five years.

South Africa’s oldest Internet exchange point, INX-ZA, on the other hand, has much lower levels of traffic at an inbound average of 762Gbps and an outbound average of 761Gbps.

NAPAfrica’s surging growth

Established in 2012 to attract global content to the African continent, NAPAfrica recorded a peak traffic of 532Mbps in its first year of operations.

Since then, it has cemented itself as the largest IXP in South Africa, located at Teraco data centre facilities in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg.

NAPAfrica’s traffic reached 1Tbps in March 2020, representing a growth of approximately 1,884 times the traffic it observed at launch. It reached 2Tbps in July of the following year and 5Tbps in 2025.

The rise to 1Tbps came with a big jump in Internet traffic during the Covid-19 pandemic. Growth continued at a slower rate in its aftermath.

Teraco’s head of platforms, Michelle McCann, told MyBroadband this was due to the African Internet community embracing the value of peering, data-intensive applications, and the increasing demand for video content.

“These trends have driven greater network traffic levels between cloud and service providers, enterprises, and end users across Africa, which has contributed to NAPAfrica’s tremendous growth,” she added.

According to Teraco, the IXP reached 656 members as of early 2025, compared to 200 in 20216, making it the sixth largest globally and the biggest on the African continent.

Teraco lead for interconnection and peering, Andrew Owens, said the company’s members also included global content and cloud providers, managed service providers, and a growing enterprise base.

“The exchange started with five members, and today, more than 440 unique autonomous system numbers (ASNs) are connected from across the world, including 26 African countries,” he added.

Owens said enterprises and networks navigating to crucial content and cloud services helped drive NAPAfrica’s growth, as did the popularity of platforms like Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube.

Issued on MyBroadband by Daniel Puchert | https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/603354-south-african-internet-traffic-boom.html