Mobile video traffic hits nearly 70 percent on certain networks

Mobile World Congress 2012, SANTA CLARA, USA: Bytemobile Inc., the industry leader in video optimization and Smart Capacity solutions for mobile network operators, published the findings of its Mobile Analytics Report – February 2012. The new report reveals that the average volume of video traffic on mobile networks has risen by 10 percentage points since this time last year – up to 50 percent from 40 percent.

In certain networks, video traffic is up to 69 percent of total traffic. Also, while the average subscriber uses YouTube and Facebook for roughly the same amount of time – about nine minutes per session – YouTube generates a staggering 350 times more traffic.

According to Bytemobile’s report, an iPad user generates three times the data traffic that an iPhone subscriber does. Also of note, mobile social networking is taking off, as smartphone users spend an average of 4.57 minutes per session on Twitter, 8.51 minutes per session on YouTube and 9.06 minutes per session on Facebook.

The report also shows that a majority of traffic generated by iOS devices – 83 percent – comes from just three native Apple apps – Media Player, Safari and App Store/iTunes, at 47 percent, 21 percent and 15 percent, respectively. The single most used app is Safari, which accounts for over 60 percent of transactions between the device and the network.

Android devices generate more advertising transactions and corresponding data volume on mobile networks than iOS devices. In addition, Google is far and away the most dominant source of mobile data traffic produced by advertisements, with an average of 75% of the total ad-generated data.