The company predicted, in its Mobile Content and Applications Forecasts report, that the global mobile data traffic will grow from 3.89 trillion megabytes in 2011 to 39.75 trillion megabytes in 2016, amounting in a tenfold increase.

By contrast, global mobile data revenues will grow from $US325.8 billion in 2011 to $US627.5 billion in 2016, amounting to a two-fold increase.

However, according to the report, although the revenue pie will grow, the slice kept by mobile operators will shrink.

Excluding data and SMS/MMS, the percentage for operators of what users pay for all other data services will drop from 56 per cent in 2011 to 41 per cent in 2016.

The report also showed that mobile phone users will, on average, consume 6.5 times as much video, over eight times as much music and social media, and nearly 10 times as much games as in 2011.