Mobile Data Offloaded Will Grow 100-fold by 2015
Mobile data offloading is forecast to triple in the next five years. According to a new study from ABI Research, about 16% of mobile data is diverted from mobile networks today, and that is expected to increase to 48% by 2015. But data traffic itself will have grown by a factor of 30, meaning that offloaded data will expand 100-fold.
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. [ABIResearch]
As ABI Research practice director Aditya Kaul explains, “Each of these offload and optimization technologies is aimed at solving a particular problem and they will all coexist. Wi-Fi is effective in covering limited areas containing many users, such as transport stations and sports venues. A femtocell, in contrast, is a good solution for targeting small numbers of heavy data users. Mobile CDNs attack the problem of frequently-used content, for example a video that has ‘gone viral’, by caching the file locally rather than loading it onto the network for each download request.”
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.
Data offloading saves money as well as relieving network traffic. “Moving data costs a surprising amount,” says Kaul. “Wi-Fi and femtocells in particular do that at a tiny fraction of the per-Gigabyte cost of a 3G network. The ABI Research report precisely quantifies these savings.”
Most of these solutions are being offered to operators by a number of suppliers. Prominent among them: Belair Networks for carrier Wi-Fi; Ubiquisys for femtocells; Akamai for CDN; Stoke, Inc. for core offloading; and for media optimization, Bytemobile and Openwave.
The Mobile Data Pendulum Swings to the U.S.
By Jason Ankeny
For years, the United States lagged embarrassingly far behind Western Europe and the Far East in respect to mobile data adoption and innovation, but no more--thanks to a new generation of more sophisticated and user-friendly smartphones as well as a mounting number of must-have applications, the U.S. is now the standard by which other nations are judged.
During the first half of 2008, the U.S. moved past Japan as the world's most lucrative mobile data market, according to a report by advisory firm Chetan Sharma Consulting--U.S. operators racked up $17.5 billion in data revenues in the first six months of this year, versus $13.6 billion for Japanese operators. China followed in third place at $7.8 billion--together, the three markets account for close to 50 percent of combined worldwide data service revenues, Chetan Sharma notes.
In all, data revenues now account for almost 20 percent of worldwide operator service revenues. Japan's NTT DoCoMo led among individual operators with $6.8 billion in data revenues during the first six months of 2008, crossing 84 percent in 3G penetration. The remainder of the top 10, in descending order: China Mobile, KDDI, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, China Unicom, Softbank, O2 UK and T-Mobile USA.
According to Chetan Sharma, data revenues for the top 10 operators increased 10.3 percent from 2007 marks, and while their collective subscriber share is around 30 percent, their mobile data revenues represent close to half of global totals. During the first half of 2008, many carriers also experienced an increase in non-SMS data revenues--on average, Japan and Korea now rake in between 70 and 75 percent of their data revenues from non-SMS applications, with the U.S. between 50 and 60 percent and Western Europe around 20 to 40 percent. Who knows what 2009 will bring? [FierceMobileContent]
Text Messages Drive Mobile Data Growth
Medium demands savvy use by marketers
Mobile data service revenues in the US rose to $14.8 billion for the first half of 2008, according to the CTIA. That was up 40% over the first half of 2007, when data revenues reached $10.5 billion. Mobile data now accounts for one-fifth of all mobile revenues.
Text messaging is a big reason for the jump in mobile data revenues. The CTIA said Americans sent 75 billion text messages in June 2008 alone. Texts are part of a trend toward using mobile handsets to do more than just talk.
"More and more people are using wireless devices to access the Internet, take photos, get directions, watch videos, download music and send text messages," said Steve Largent, CEO of the CTIA, in a statement.
For marketers, the rise in texting does not necessarily mean that every campaign should now contain a 160-character message. In a February 2008 study by ExactTarget, only 1% of US Internet users who had opted in to marketing lists said they preferred to get that information as texts. Instead, the medium should be used where it is most appropriate and welcomed by mobile users.
Read more - eMarketer
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