Bytemobile released its first-quarter 2010 Mobile Minute Metrics report today. The report anonymously sources the aggregate data traffic in a global cross-section of Bytemobile customers’ wireless networks and provides insight into the current state of the mobile ecosystem.

Analysis of various 3G networks indicates that the data traffic mix is consistent across geographies – with video as the dominant form of traffic.

Other key data from the report:

●Video is the dominant form of laptop-generated wireless traffic. However, automatic software updates consume 10% of the total laptop-generated volume in networks.

●A minority of mobile data users consume the majority of network bandwidth – with 10% generating approximately 85% of total traffic.

●Consistent with 4Q 2009, internet videos average approximately five minutes in length, but users watch them for an average of less than 60 seconds.

●Generally, the majority of mobile videos are downloaded by more than one user, with 36% of videos downloaded up to 100 times and 6% of videos downloaded 1,000 times or more.

1Q 2010 Mobile Minute Metrics – Interactive Presentation

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Mobile Minute kicked off the new year and the new decade with its first webinar – “Next-Gen Data Services: Adding Value to Traffic” – on February 4. You can access a full replay of the webinar here and on the Mobile Minute page of our website.

The event’s approximately 460 registrants came from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the U.S., and Canada. Attendees represented a broad cross-section of wireless network operators and other participants in the mobile ecosystem.

FierceWireless Editor Phil Goldstein moderated a panel consisting of three speakers: Fabio Mungo, chief technology officer of Accenture Mobility Operated Services; Scott Lane, director of 4G Product Marketing at Sprint; and Joel Brand, vice president of Product Management at Bytemobile.

Fabio Mungo led off the discussion with an overview of the mobility market, its drivers and the impact of those drivers. He characterized it as a ‘market of mass niches’ rather than a mass market per se, indicating that entertainment and data products would drive the U.S. segment to $200 billion in 2010. Mungo cited the interconnection among multiple devices and applications as a key cause and effect of the ‘always connected lifestyle’. He added that low-cost devices and ubiquitous connectivity will continue to spawn a wealth of new mobile applications and business models.

Scott Lane cited the magnitude of the mobile data revolution as comparable with – or potentially even greater than – the PC and internet revolutions that had preceded it. From the carrier’s perspective, the three critical elements for success are: 1) a network to process and deliver the data traffic; 2) spectrum to provide ample capacity for the network; and 3) devices to deliver value to the consumer. Lane also discussed the details of Sprint’s 4G network build-out based on WiMax technology.

Joel Brand focused his presentation on mobile data rate plans of the future, which should balance the respective needs of consumers, carriers and content providers. He cited the impact of flat-rate pricing on the data traffic explosion and subsequent evaporation of data revenue in proportion to volume, as well as the side effect of network resource monopolization by a small percentage of users. The challenge for carriers is to map rate plans to user needs and preferences and to communicate with their customers in order to build value over time. Brand closed with a brief overview of Bytemobile’s WebGate™ Service, which provides carriers with numerous capabilities to meet this challenge.

The webinar concluded with a robust question-and-answer session in which Mungo, Lane and Brand fielded inquiries ranging from ‘Is it necessary to proxy all traffic through a service delivery platform in order to add value?’ (no) to ‘What specific mobile data applications will generate more revenue in the next four to five years?’ (video). Also, the following poll question was posed to the participants and yielded an interesting mix of responses:

Other Mobile Minute events are being planned for the coming months. We will cover these events on our blog and website as part of our ongoing efforts to provide thought leadership and consultative education to the rapidly evolving mobile internet space.

-Jaishree Subramania

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With iPhones already earning the reputation as ‘bandwidth hogs’, and networks with heavy smartphone use already under intense pressure, devices like netbooks and USB dongles are adding even more stress to carriers’ infrastructure.

With today’s introduction of the Apple iPad - a device for which users’ quality-of-service expectations are extremely high – operators’ capacity challenges are mounting and may push their networks over the edge.

What we know about the Apple iPad:

Every iPad has Wi-Fi, but Apple also has models with 3G.

There are two wireless data plans. The first provides up to 250 MB per month for $14.99. The second provides unlimited data for $29.99. AT&T is the exclusive service provider and includes free use of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots. In the U.S., wireless operators typically charge about $60 a month for a laptop data plan.

There is no contract — service is prepaid, so consumers can cancel any time. That’s a big change from the iPhone. All iPad 3G models are unlocked, so consumers can use them with any carrier that supports micro-SIM technology.

The question is: are carriers’ networks equipped to handle another, even more massive, explosion of mobile data consumption?

If Apple’s new iPad lives up to the usage patterns – and more importantly – the bandwidth problems of the iPhone, then the answer is: probably not.

In a recent Wall Street Journal blog post, Niraj Sheth wrote:

…the iPhone is hardly the kind of data guzzler the tablet is widely expected to be. After all, it’s one thing to squint at movies on a 3.5-inch screen and quite another to watch them in a relatively cinematic 10 inches.

With this in mind, carriers can surely expect a ‘secondary’ explosion in video and other multimedia traffic. They need to prepare their networks now in order to avoid consumer backlash. Another quantum leap in data traffic will not only strain the network - and thus the user experience - but will also strain profit margins due to out-of-control infrastructure costs.

We should expect to see the wireless industry put a priority on intelligently managing network traffic and experimenting with new ways to curtail the margin squeeze - whether through tiered pricing plans, stricter enforcement of fair use policies or new value-added services.

-Stacey Infantino

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AT&T’s making MMS available on the iPhone is big news – something for which its users have clamored. Of course, AT&T isn’t the only carrier that is concerned about how to make sure its network is prepared for an increase in multimedia traffic. To better understand why carriers are justifiably nervous, let’s take a look at the following data which represents traffic over a 24-hour period in a cross-section of some of our larger customers’ 3G networks.

Note that 90% of the users are browsing the web, which accounts for 40-50% of the total traffic.

Streaming video accounts for 30-40%, but that is generated by less than 1% of the users. It’s not difficult to do the math and envision the magnitude of the impact as more users consume video and other multimedia applications.

P2P file sharing is also a bandwidth hog, with less than 1/10 of 1% of users accounting for 5-10% of the total traffic.

It is clear that intelligent traffic control is necessary, enabling carriers to enforce fair use policies adaptively without damaging customer relationships. By increasing network efficiency and capacity, operators can manage the effects of continued traffic growth within the footprint of their existing installation and scale their networks ahead of rising data usage trends. This will also help to ensure a compelling user experience.

-Stacey Infantino

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