A new report from Allot Communications – a well-known supplier of service optimization and revenue generation solutions for fixed and mobile broadband service providers – indicates that mobile data bandwidth usage “continued its steady rise” with 77% growth during the first six months of 2011.
The report was fashioned via data gleaned from Allot’s worldwide mobile operator customers.
The H1 2011 Allot MobileTrends Report also found that video streaming similarly showed a a 93% increase, and remains the single largest application taking up bandwidth, accounting for 39% of mobile bandwidth.
Although having limited impact on the total bandwidth, VoIP and IM have gained share to become the fastest growing application type with a 101% increase. This data is in line with the declining SMS/MMS revenue experienced by operators.
Other significant findings in the report include:
- YouTube remains the single most popular mobile Internet destination, accounting for 22% of mobile data bandwidth usage and 52% of total video streaming
- Apple’s App Store generates 84% of overall app store download traffic, while Google’s Android Market accounts for 13%
- Skype continues as the undisputed VoIP market leader with 82% of mobile VoIP bandwidth, although its market share has been slightly reduced by newcomers such as Viber
- Twitter and Facebook grew by 297% and 166%, respectively
- 32% of the mobile operators surveyed worldwide have already implemented application-aware charging models
“OTT applications continue to shift the balance of power from the operators to the content and app providers,” says Rami Hadar, President and CEO of Allot Communications. “This presents a real challenge for survival to which operators have already begun to respond. We are seeing operators taking the opportunity to evolve their service plans, away from ‘unlimited’ and towards application-aware models, in order to meet this challenge.”
