The report's forecasts
Nokia published the Global Network Traffic Report 2026-2035 on 4 November, according to which, by 2035, artificial intelligence will account for about 44% of global network traffic. Over the same period, total monthly volume, according to the company, will grow almost fourfold from 2026 levels, reaching about 3,789 EB. These are long-term estimates formulated by the company, not measured data.
The report argues that the network will have to serve not only people but increasingly connected machines. AI, it says, will drive demand for uplink bandwidth, faster response times, and processing capacity located closer to users and devices.
The growing weight of uplink
The most significant point concerns the direction of traffic. According to Nokia, the spread of AI agents and connected machines will strain architectures built mainly for downstream transmission to the user. Physical AI applications—that is, robots and connected vehicles interacting in real time with their environment—will generate more than 90% of their data on the uplink.
The projections also indicate very rapid growth in the two categories, albeit from small bases: AI agent traffic in 2035 would be 160 times that of 2026, while physical AI traffic would be 105 times higher. These are estimates not verified by third parties that, if confirmed, would imply heterogeneous workloads, from large bulk transfers to continuous, highly responsive connections.
FWA and open questions
The report flags a second phenomenon: by 2035, fixed wireless access is expected to generate more than a third of consumer cellular traffic. Mobile networks would therefore extend beyond traditional services to a central role in home connectivity.
Several aspects remain to be clarified that the material does not address: the methodological assumptions underlying the estimates, the geographic distribution of projected traffic, and the implications for operators. The news is therefore the release of the report and its forecasts, not their independent confirmation.
