The latest biannual global H2 2011 Allot MobileTrends Report from Allot Communications has revealed that Mobile Broadband data traffic grew by 83% in the second half of the year (CAGR of 234%) and is dominated by video streaming, which accounted for 42% of all usage (up from 39% in H1 2011); the popular YouTube video sharing site alone was responsible for 24% of total broadband traffic (up from 22% in H1).

However, the fastest growing applications were VoIP and Instant Messaging (IM), which grew by 114% (up from 101% in H1). It's interesting to note that the File Sharing (P2P) growth rate is in decline, gaining 29% compared to a 33% growth rate in the first half of 2011.


The data also shows that Skype continues to account for the lion's share of global mobile VoIP bandwidth (79%), yet this actually represents a decline from 82% in H1. New VoIP entrants, such as Viber, ooVoo and Tango, seem to be eating away at Skype's share (Viber already accounts for 2% of global mobile traffic).


Apparently Facebook Messenger is now an all-time "killer app" on mobile after having risen from zero to 22% of total IM traffic in just four months. But mobile traffic for Facebook (social network) itself grew by 105%, which is sharply down on the 166% seen during H1.

Meanwhile traffic from the Android Market (Smartphone App Store) grew by a phenomenal 232%, which is four times faster than Apple's admittedly much more established iOS App Store (61%). But the iOS App Store still dominates 79% of related traffic, while Android Market holds just 18%.

The important thing to take away from this is that overall growth continues to be heading in a sharply upwards direction. Allot's results are a useful mirror for Cisco's recent and much more detailed Mobile VNI report.