The total number of people connected to the Internet worldwide is expected to surpass 2.7 billion in 2013, while the total number of applications downloaded over all types of devices will exceed 50 billion, a new report by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has said.

The 2013 edition of ITU's flagship regulatory report `Trends in Telecommunication Reform', highlights the increasingly global nature of information and communication technology (ICT) regulation and the crucial link between effective regulation of the ICT sector and the range, quality and affordability of ICT services available to consumers and business users alike, CBC News Reported.

Focusing on `Transnational Aspects of Regulation in a Networked Society', this year's report confirms continued rapid expansion of tech markets worldwide.

"Rapid growth of broadband has seen global IP traffic skyrocket from around one petabyte 20 years ago to an estimated 44,000 petabytes (44 exabytes) at end 2012.

As an indicator of the sheer volume this represents, that amount of data would take 1,100 years to download over a 10Mbps broadband link or more than 200,000 years over a dial-up connection.

In 2013 alone, IP traffic is expected to grow by around 14 exabytes per month the monthly equivalent of twice total cumulative global traffic for the whole decade from 1994 2003.

"Traffic volumes are being driven by the ever-growing number of connected people and connectable devices, the trend toward multiple device ownership, an abundance of highly diversified and mostly free online content, and increasingly widespread consumer access to fixed and mobile broadband networks capable of supporting high-bandwidth services like streaming video.