Wireless packet data networks were built on voice networks and provided the basic connectivity between mobile consumers and the Internet.

For years, operators struggled to drive adoption of mobile data. The key barriers were the speed of the network, the cost of data delivery, the capabilities of mobile devices, and the availability of internet content. Bytemobile technology connected wireless laptops to the Internet and helped operators address network speed and data delivery costs. WAP phones provided access to walled-garden content on the operators’ portals.

Next, operators launched 3G networks and the first generation of smartphones, while connecting feature phones to the Internet. Bytemobile enabled this trend with the adaptation of web, Flash and media content for smartphones and feature phones, and the insertion of advertising in adapted content for the monetization of web traffic.

The commercial implementation of HSPA network technology supported compelling new devices such as high-end smartphones and rich new applications such as video. This confluence of factors caused mobile internet usage to grow exponentially, as data revenue and traffic volume accelerated far beyond operators’ expectations.

Operators now had to expand their network capacity quickly in order to capitalize on the revenue opportunity and manage the traffic challenge. They increased infrastructure investments in radio access, backhaul, and core network technologies. Bytemobile supported this requirement with a mobile internet gateway enabling operators to optimize and deliver web and video content on all Internet-connected mobile devices.

Today, operators are building and launching 4G networks with policy controls to ensure both full monetization and fair use of next-generation data services. The intelligent application of policies enables operators to differentiate services by subscriber usage profile and enforce limits on excessive consumption of data.

In this environment, Bytemobile’s mobile internet gateway produces a cumulative network multiplier effect across the operator’s investments in wireless spectrum and multiple generations of radio, backhaul and core technologies. This multiplier effect serves to enhance the performance of all network elements by increasing efficiency and control.

The Unison™ Mobile Internet Platform provides operators with a comprehensive solution for managing mobile data services which combines web and media optimization with traffic analysis and policy enforcement. The result is a next-generation policy control and traffic delivery system for 4G networks.

-Tod Bottari         
 

Bookmark to:

Wired Magazine recently published an article declaring the demise of the Web.

Since we at Bytemobile spend a lot of time processing and analyzing the network traffic of mobile operators around the world*, we were surprised. Our experience leads us to very different conclusions.

Let’s start with the area graph using Cisco data. While we agree with the data, we disagree with the use of traffic volumes to infer usage patterns.

The average video generates more than 30 times the traffic volume of the average web page. In other words, a user would have to visit 30-plus web pages to generate the same amount of traffic as one video. This ratio becomes even more skewed as users watch more long-form video from providers such as Hulu and Netflix. While video is the fastest growing form of traffic in terms of volume, it is hardly stealing usage from web pages. Video-generated traffic volume growth can be driven by a number of factors in addition to increased usage, such as longer durations or higher video quality. It is inaccurate to extrapolate traffic volume to usage patterns and conclude that users are moving away from the Web.

Wireless Data Traffic Mix – By Geographic Region

Source: Bytemobile Mobile Minute Metrics Report, February 2010

We also disagree with Wired’s classification of video as being separate from the Web. Video is an integral part of the Web. Most video is delivered from websites such as YouTube through a web browser. Further, videos are searchable and can be linked just as web pages are. Analysis of tier-one 3G networks worldwide shows that more than 95% of video traffic is delivered over HTTP on port 80 - just as web pages are. Video is simply another form of content on the Web. 

As far as apps supplanting the browsed Web are concerned, while apps are experiencing tremendous growth on smartphones, the browser still generates a major portion of the traffic. In fact, web browsing generates as much traffic as all apps combined – about 30% browser, 30% apps, 40% video, according to our network data.

iPhone Data Traffic Distribution by Highest Bandwidth-Consuming Applications

Source: Bytemobile Mobile Minute Metrics Report, February 2010

Moreover, apps are built primarily on web infrastructure. They use the same technologies that are used by browsers, such as HTML, HTTP, JPEG, XML, and others. Therefore, while apps may change the way that users consume content, they are still very much a part of the Web.

What we see changing is not the Web itself, but rather the channels that consumers are using to interact with the Web. Far from being dead, the Web is alive, well and thriving. And growing.

- Girish Wadhwani

*See Bytemobile’s quarterly Mobile Minute Metrics reports for more information.

Bookmark to:

Yesterday, ABI Research announced a new and very timely report, titled “Mobile Network Offloading”.

Noteworthy excerpts from ABI’s news release (italics ours):

The serious, well-publicized traffic overloads (including content data and radio signaling) that are starting to choke many mobile networks will only worsen as smartphones and other mobile devices proliferate, and operators must extend capacity. Brute force network expansion, requiring a doubling of capacity, isn’t an option.

Instead, several approaches and technologies will play specific roles in relieving network congestion. These include Wi-Fi, femtocells, mobile CDNs (content delivery networks), media optimization, and more.

“Each of these offload and optimization technologies is aimed at solving a particular problem and they will all coexist.” – Aditya Kaul, Practice Director, ABI Research

One of the most effective tools is media optimization – effectively improved compression – which is already being used widely. Media optimization will grow the fastest and deliver the greatest traffic reduction of all these methods.

For more information on the ABI report, click here.

-Tod Bottari
 

Bookmark to:

Image courtesy of Dustin D’Amour via the Creative Commons attribution license.

Some thoughts on Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of Palm:

Palm, a pioneer in the smartphone business, was acquired for $1.2 billion by Hewlett-Packard this week. With this deal, the battle of the smartphone market just got edgier and more interesting. Responding to questions on the announcement, Vice President of Hewlett-Packard’s Personal Systems Group Todd Bradley said the market for mobile phones is “large, profitable and growing.” HP sees smartphones as a “very early stage market” and wants to compete with its own product.

Check out the live blog on HP’s announcement at The Wall Street Journal.

Initial media reactions:

Long story short, HP just (re)entered the mobile space in a major way. And look for webOS eventually to be used across the range of HP products. – TechCrunch

It's clear that smartphones are becoming better and better at replacing full-fledged computers for many tasks, and Dell and HP clearly don't want to be forgotten when everyone is debating Andoid or iPhone with the same vigor once saved for OS X vs. Windows. We say: Bring it on. - Switched

-Subhi Andrews

Bookmark to: