Allot Communications, a company that specialises in bandwidth management for fixed and mobile broadband service providers, has published its Allot MobileTrends Report for the first half of 2011. It shows that mobile data bandwidth usage (based on data from its mobile operator customers) has grown by 77% during H1 2011.
Video streaming from mobile devices was up by 93% and now accounts for 39% of mobile bandwidth usage. YouTube was the single most popular mobile internet destination, accounting for 22% of mobile data bandwidth (and 52% of all video streaming).
The fastest-growing application type was VoIP and IM, which increased by 101% - although it’s responsible for less than 5% of bandwidth usage overall. 82% of mobile VoIP bandwidth is consumed by Skype, although its market share has declined slightly.
Allot also noted that 32% of the mobile operators surveyed had implemented application-aware charging models.
Rami Hadar, President and CEO of Allot Communications, said “OTT applications continue to shift the balance of power from the operators to the content and app providers. 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.”
[Report]