Video, social networks drive mobile data boom

The combination of video streaming and social networking are driving the mobile bandwidth boom and will continue to do so, according to network optimization firm Allot.

In it latest six-month study of mobile broadband traffic, Twitter grew a mammoth 310%, Facebook 200% and YouTube 123%, Allot said.

Video streaming was the biggest application, accounting for 35% of all traffic and growing 92% over last year. Web browsing was the second biggest, taking 29%, followed by HTTP downloads (16%) and P2P (15%). P2P and HTTP downloads together grew 80% and VoIP and IM traffic grew by 84%, but their share of total bandwidth was a miniscule 3%.

Allot CEO Rami Hadar the results showed the close links between and social networking. “Whether it's YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, social networking via mobile devices is becoming a 'must have' for subscribers and we expect that this is just the beginning,” he said.

The soaring use of Twitter underlined “the sheer suitability of the medium for mobile. With dozens of mobile apps for Twitter in the marketplace and more being developed every day, this microblogging social network has become an incredibly popular, affordable and user-friendly way of communicating,” the report said.

The threefold growth in Facebook traffic followed a 180% spike in the second half of 2009, a result of the rapid takeup in Facebook mobile use.

YouTube remained one of the single most popular destinations, occupying 13% of bandwidth. Skype was biggest VoIP market leader, taking 83% of mobile VoIP bandwidth, Allot said.

The survey is based on data from mobile operators with 190 million users worldwide.

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