Video accounts for less than 6% of Africa’s internet traffic, but that figure is expected to grow faster than in any other region, says US-based network solutions firm Sandvine.

This is according to the firm’s internet traffic trends report, entitled “Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013”.

The report is based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus service provider customers across North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

Sandvine’s ‘Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013’ also includes findings from fixed and mobile networks around the world.

Other findings of the report regarding Africa include that Blackberry email and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) accounts for over 13% of traffic across the continent.

“The African market is especially unique, as most users are connecting to the internet for the first time through mobile devices, and using applications like Skype, Facebook and WhatsApp,” says Dave Caputo, chief executive officer of Sandvine

“In other parts of the world, new users have first connected to the internet via a fixed line. While video is a small part of mobile bandwidth in the region today, we predict Africa will be the fastest video adopter and operators will respond with creative device-and application-based service tiers,” he adds.

Other global findings of the report include that monthly mobile usage in Asia-Pacific now exceeds 1 gigabyte, driven by video, which accounts for 50% of peak downstream traffic.

This, in turn, is more than double the 443 megabyte monthly average in North America, says the statement.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Netflix, less than two years since launch, now accounts for over 20% of downstream traffic on certain fixed networks in the British Isles. It took almost four years for Netflix to achieve 20% of data traffic in the US.

To read full findings of the Sandvine report, click here.