Our team is back from Vienna, with feedback from the Mobile Network Optimisation conference on the 7^th and 8^th of June.

Reporting from Vienna were Matt Dunnett, who chaired the second day of the conference and Ansgar Erlenkoetter who presented a session on day one entitled Determining how to optimise your network without compromising the customer experience.

Not surprisingly, the most pressing concern cited repeatedly was that video traffic, far more than any other mobile data category, is plugging up the network. In one presentation, Vodafone Spain noted that 21% of all devices on their network were dongles but that they take up 76% of the bandwidth. They presented on the introduction of HPSA and how Smartphone proliferation and app download patterns, among other factors, have caused them to completely change their philosophy on network design.

In another presentation, a consulting firm said that one of their MNO customers measured 4% of subscribers taking up 82% of network bandwidth. As the old song goes, that’s entertainment.

Ansgar noted that following his presentation, the message that a number of audience members identified with was that ‘video experience is considered key by end users’ and how there are currently no good RAN-level solutions to properly measure video experience as a KPI. Some in the audience felt, that it would make sense to have tighter coordination between Internet gateways and the RAN. (Good idea.)

Finally, it was interesting to hear some of the engineers in the audience agree with our assertion that even when LTE is widespread and RAN-level optimization is implemented, even this spectrum will eventually get used up and new innovations in video optimization will need to continue to be developed.

We’re working on it. Come back soon for more updates about what’s in store from Mobixell.

Noam Green
VP Marketing, Mobixell

In case you missed it last week, Teresa Cottam (@Teresacottam) of Microsperience interviewed me for her Telesperience blog.

At the bottom of Teresa’s blog post you can play the podcast of the whole interview where we discussed some of the ways mobile operators can beat the Capacity Crunch (no, not Cap’n Crunch®).

And, if you listen all the way through, you’ll hear my short list of ‘hot’ tips to mobile operators.

Thanks Teresa, it was a pleasure speaking with you.

Noam Green
VP Marketing, Mobixell

Yesterday, I had a conversation with Nick Wood from Total Telecom. He wanted to know what I thought about the steps mobile operators are taking to handle capacity limits that are being threatened by the growing tide of mobile video.

Bottom line, operators are starting to come around to the realization that moving from 3G to 4G is not enough. It’s kind of like my commute to work. The roads authority decided that it was time to add two more lanes in each direction to the congested highway I take to work. Well, once the new lanes opened, driving was great… for maybe two months. When people heard how fast the traffic was going, I guess they all went out and bought a car. The result was worse traffic jams than before. Now, in the words of Yogi Berra, “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.” For sure, no operator wants to hear their subscribers say that.

Adding capacity, like adding lanes on the highway, will only make people want to use it even more. Then it gets into a cycle of build and fill. With all the new devices and services coming on line, operators need to use a multi-disciplinary approach to keep the data, and especially ever more popular video flowing. In addition to building capacity, operators can reduce traffic loads with Web and video optimization, tiered charging plans and even giving subscribers more control over whether and when they want more performance or better economy.

I wish there were so many options for reducing traffic jams.

(You can read more about my conversation with Total Telecom here.)

Drive safely.

Noam Green
VP Marketing, Mobixell

7 billion minutes is more than 14,000 years. If you were to hold out that long (here’s to your health) and watch YouTube videos 24/7 the whole time (okay, never mind the health thing), you’d consume around 40 petabytes (40 BILLION megabytes) of video. That’s the combined average monthly traffic load of the 10 operators who have signed Seamless Access deals with Mobixell in just the last 6 months.

Mobile operators have, for years, expressed concern about the increasing tide of mobile data traffic. Now they’ve started to take practical steps to hold back the tide. Of course it’s satisfying to know that Tier-1 mobile operators are choosing Mobixell Seamless Access as their Mobile Internet Platform. But what these wins really mean is that the mainstream mobile industry is setting video optimization and traffic management as a priority in their network planning.

Declan Lonergan, vice president of Yankee Group’s Anywhere Consumer Research group says he’s been warning industry experts that “a wait-and-see attitude toward data, and specifically video traffic optimization can have a significant, negative impact on the economics of running a network.” He is encouraged to see that the industry is taking his advice seriously.

This trend is global, but with regional twists. In North America and Western Europe, where smartphones, tablets and other wireless device deployment projections are exceeding expectations, mobile operators are looking to push off capacity investments. One way they are doing that is by seeking out video and Web optimization technologies that improve user experience.

In Asia Pacific, where data traffic has not yet impacted capacity limitations to the same extent,. the immediate priority appears to be to implement unified, policy-driven Mobile Internet Platforms with centralized management for all data traffic and services. What we’ve seen, though, is that mobile operators in APAC are also making it a priority to select the platforms with strong video and Web optimization capabilities to be ready when the inevitable data traffic crunch hits their region.

This trend toward broader adoption of mobile Internet video optimization is good news for subscribers who want to watch video on their mobile devices. What positive mobile trends have you seen recently?

Noam Green
VP Marketing, Mobixell

I hope everybody has recovered from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  Unfortunately, I got sick on th 3rd day of the show and missed out on seeing some of the more interesting new products, for example the 3D phone that was introduced by LG.  Luckily, I can rely on industry bloggers like Ewan MacLeod whose posts includes videos like the tour of the RIM stand which I saw from my hotel room.  Because I was sick, I missed an interview with Ewan that I was looking forward to–we’ll catch you next time, Ewan.

Moving on, we are gearing up for our User Conference in Italy in April .  I’ll be posting more information about that event next time.

Cheers,

Noam, VP Marketing, Mobixell

Noam Green, Associate Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Mobixell looks at the optimisation considerations central to quickly adjusting to current and future network challenges.

With the data explosion in full progress wireless networks are now approaching full capacity, forcing mobile operators to significantly increase their investment in wireless infrastructure. This major segment of operator expenditure is projected to grow extensively over the coming years as mobile data consumption continues to mushroom.

Click here to read the rest of the article on radio-electronics.com

Cisco’s comprehensive annual Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, released Feb 1st, introduces some very interesting statistics about the mobile network in the coming years.

The year of 2010 ended with an unexpected growth in global mobile traffic data. For a third year in a raw global mobile data traffic has nearly tripled during 2010.

Mobile phones seem to develop and evolve at an exponential rate. Throughout 2010 the number of smartphones in use grew by 32 percent. Along with mobile-connected laptops, an evolving market of tablets and migration of traffic from the fixed network, overall mobile data usage is expected to grow up to 6.3 exabytes per month by 2015.

The report lays out the 9 major trends considered to be the reasons for mobile traffic growth in the near future. One of these trends, having the highest growth rate of any application category measured within the Cisco VNI forecast - Mobile Video – was also identified by Mobixell and is addressed by its Seamless Access Video Optimization solution.

Compared to other mobile contents, video content is richer, more complex and has much higher bit rates. Mobile video traffic is expected to pass the 50 percent bar in 2011 to reach 52.8 percent of traffic by the end of the year.

Furthermore, Cisco anticipates that mobile video will generate much of the mobile traffic growth through 2015, populating 4.2 exabytes of data crossing the mobile network.

A petabyte (derived from the SI prefix peta- ) is a unit of information equal to one quadrillion (short scale) bytes, or 1000 terabytes. The unit symbol for the petabyte is PB. The prefix peta- (P) indicates a power of 1000:

-  1 PB = 1,000,000,000,000,000 B = 1000⁵ B = 10¹⁵ B.  If you really want to know more check out this Wikipedia article.

We announced today that Mobxiell has reached the milestone of optimizing one petabyte of mobile video traffic every month. One petabyte is one billion megabytes of data, roughly equivalent to 350,000,000 minutes of YouTube videos.

Our milestone was reached thanks to the global growth in mobile video consumption, as well as the company’s recent deployments of its video optimization and web acceleration capabilities in Tier 1 operators in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Given the current rate of growth, and additional sites being launched, We predict that our existing customer base will reach the five petabyte per month barrier by the end of 2011.

The continued growth of mass market smartphones means that more and more users are creating and accessing video content, placing more and more stress on the operator networks. YouTube is still the biggest source for mobile video consumption, yet the rise of other video-rich websites and mobile applications is also having a big impact.  The volume of mobile video traffic is already reaching over 55% of our operator’s HTTP traffic and is continuously growing. Mobile video traffic is predicted to reach more than 70% of all mobile traffic, which means every operator, large and small, should be exploring creative ways to reduce that volume of traffic, as part of a wider traffic optimization strategy in 2011.

We asked Declan Lonergan, vice president of Yankee Group’s Anywhere Consumer research group what he thought of this phenomenon: “The growth of mobile video has outpaced every other form of mobile data on the operator network. It is such a large, and growing source of bandwidth usage, that failing to address it can have a significant, negative impact on a carrier’s operating expenditure, potentially going so far as to put the economics of running a network at risk.”

With real-time entertainment commanding up to 43% of total Internet traffic, as discussed in Sandvine’s recent Fall 2010 Global Internet Phenomena report, many mobile operators are experiencing high network load and thus are looking for end to end media optimization solutions.   Sandvine today announced it has partnered with Mobixell and 2 other global companies for end-to-end media optimization solutions. The combination of Sandvine’s unique divert technology and Mobixell’s “Seamless Access”, an advanced Mobile Internet Gateway solution, enables us to provide a continuous non-stop video playing experience regardless of network fluctuations.  Smooth and continuous video experience is one of users’ strongest indicators of network quality – and ultimately influences the perception of their operator’s network efficiency.

Netflix are Going Mobile – Perceived as a Game Changer for ISPs and Cable TV, What Would Their Impact be on that Market?

Netflix recently announced the availability of their service on Windows Phone 7 devices, which, alongside the iPhone, represents the second mobile phone platform enabled for streaming from Netflix. Greg Peters, from Netflix product development, confirmed on Friday that Netflix streaming will be available on a third mobile phone platform, adding support on a selection of Android handsets in early 2011 (Netflix Blog).

Netflix, headquartered in California, offers rental-by-mail and online video streaming in the United States and Canada.

According to a new report released by Sandvine, 20.6% of all peak period bytes downloaded on fixed access networks in North America are Netflix.

According to the report, within North America, Real-Time Entertainment is the largest contributor to data consumption on both fixed (43% of peak period traffic) and mobile access (41%) networks. Within that category, Netflix is a major source of content, representing more than 20% of downstream traffic during peak hours on fixed access networks, and is heaviest from 8pm to 10pm.

Examining the top downstream applications on North America’s mobile networks, newcomer Netflix has 2.08% of the network traffic.

According to Sandvine, Netflix beats the shares of YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, and, perhaps most tellingly, the peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol BitTorrent.

On September 22nd, Netflix expanded into Canada with a streaming-only service. Within a few days, Netflix had attained shocking levels of success, and has no doubt caused alarm among Canada’s service provider community. Moreover, a growing number of subscribers drop their TV packages and use fewer pay-for-on-demand services in North America as services like Hulu and Netflix can fulfill much the same needs for significantly less monthly investment. This is even worse for service providers – not only are they losing revenue to these over-the-top offerings, but they are losing network capacity delivering these services.

With impressive statistics, a growing presence in the mobile market and the flexibility to switch to a new device and watch a video where one left off,  Netflix is surely on the right way to be a dominant player in the mobile market. It can now be said to compete directly with the pay video-on-demand services offered by many Internet providers and Cable companies. As Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sees it – “We are very proud to announce that by every measure we are now a streaming company, which also offers DVD-by-mail…”

Though operators generate significant revenue from content that travels over the delivery pipes, they may face major degradation in quality of service as those pipes become congested during peak hours. Hastings’ goal will  require network operators to take severe actions, having the control over those pipes. Operator must ensure that internet access is intelligent enough to be able to match the costs of traffic handling to the revenue associated with it. Various means may be used to intelligently manage the bandwidth;  Video Optimization is one of them. By targeting of video to playback platforms, optimizing video delivery and traffic reduction by real-time transcoding, operators can dramatically reduce video network volumes while maintaining the expected quality of service.