Video now accounts for more than half of mobile network traffic worldwide, and LTE customers are more voracious consumers of video content, according to Citrix's latest mobile analytics report.
Traffic associated with video made up 52% of worldwide mobile network traffic volumes in the second quarter, up from 45% a year earlier, the report states.
LTE subscribers are 1.5 times more likely to watch video than 3G customers, and view videos for a longer period of time.
Citrix senior product marketing manager Anna Yong said this proves that LTE drives increased demand for mobile video.
“The key concern regarding the rise of video is, and always has been, user experience, both in terms of network quality and subscriber plan satisfaction. We know that video is high-impact when it comes to mobile network consumption,” she said.
“LTE further increases the impact of video... Mobile operators’ network management strategies need to evolve to keep pace with changing user habits.”
The ratio of video ads to banner ads for mobile content is also increasing – from 1:20 a year ago to 1:16 last quarter – but 59% of mobile customers believe ads don't count towards their monthly data quota, opening up the potential for 'bill shock' scenarios.
“This sets the scene for greater urgency for mobile operators and publishers such as Twitter to reconcile an emerging conflict between user perception and reality, opening the door to more numerous and sophisticated sponsored data plans,” Yong said.