From 2005 to 2012, mobile traffic will have increased a thousand-fold, according to a keynote address at the CTIA Wireless 2009: Mobile Life conference. A Cisco white paper predicted that usage on wireless networks would double every year for the next several years, potentially multiplying 66 times between 2008 and 2013.

“It’s hard to conceive of that type of growth—can we keep up with that type of demand?” said Benjamin Wolff, co-chairman/CEO of Clearwire Corp., which partnered with Sprint on 4G WiMax technology (see story). “We’re already having some challenges with today’s networks to keep up with consumer demand, and as an industry we have to deal this capacity crunch to avoid the threat of network overload.

“We’re seeing a huge amount of wireless data consumption, and it’s only going to go up,” he said. “Capacity is the wireless industry’s dilemma, and today’s apps and devices are just the beginning.”

Today’s smartphones use 30 times as much data as feature phones, while laptops use 450 times the data of a standard mobile phone.

The popularity of new mobile applications is driving bandwidth consumption.

Read more at Mobile Marketer.