By: MarkJ - 19 January, 2011 (12:43 PM) - Score: 9203 - Mobile Broadband, Statistics

The latest research from Bytemobile, a network capacity solutions provider, has revealed that world internet video traffic became the most dominant form of Mobile Broadband usage during 2010 and accounted for 40% of the total data volume. This figure is also predicted to hit 60% in 2011.

The next generation of superfast LTE based Mobile Broadband solutions, which should start to surface in the UK between the end of 2013 and 2015 (Ofcom's timetable), will not solve the problem despite being considerably better at capacity management. In fact the rate of data consumption, coupled with faster speeds, will continue to consume available network capacity.

Summary of Bytemobile's Findings

* Video-based content will account for over 60 percent of network traffic, up from approximately 40 percent in 2010.

* Personal video communications will dominate wireless network capacity, such that 10 percent of subscribers consume 90 percent of total network traffic.

* Next-generation smartphones will lead to the consumption of bandwidth-intensive content and subscribers will continue to consume available network capacity even as operators roll out LTE.

* Operators will add “Smart Capacity” [Traffic Management] solutions to both the data centers and the packet core of their networks to better utilize capacity for rising traffic demand. These solutions combine caching, content filtering, policy enforcement, access control, and capacity control points to create smarter networks for managing existing capacity.

This helps operators protect their existing investments, control operating expenses and defer new capital expenditures. With Smart Capacity management, they can increase customer satisfaction and reduce subscriber churn.

Naturally Bytemobile has a vested interest in all of this because its business is to sell capacity management solutions. However, it's also no secret that data traffic is causing a capacity and revenue strain for mobile operators, with video content playing a big role.

Even Cisco's June 2010 Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast predicted that global internet data traffic, both mobile and fixed, would exceed 767 Exabytes by 2014, which compares with an annual run rate of 176 Exabytes in 2009 when IP traffic grew by 45% in the year (here).

We have predicted many times before that this would either result in higher prices and or tougher restrictions, which has recently begun to happen. With the noted exception of Three (3) , most other UK mobile operators have already slashed usage allowances, imposed tighter restrictions and some have effectively increased their prices by not reducing them when allowances were cut.