{"id":651709,"date":"2013-04-10T18:03:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-10T22:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=629920"},"modified":"2013-04-10T18:03:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-10T22:03:27","slug":"verizon-video-accounts-for-50-of-mobile-network-traffic-and-its-only-growing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/651709","title":{"rendered":"Verizon: Video accounts for 50% of mobile network traffic, and it\u2019s only growing"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interesting tidbit came out of Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam\u2019s speech at the National Association of Broadcasters conference on Tuesday: Half of the traffic on Verizon\u2019s mobile networks is now video, FierceWireless reported<\/a>, and by 2017 Verizon expects that number to grow to two-thirds.<\/p>\n

At first glance, it would appear that Verizon just is keeping with the global average. Cisco Systems\u2019 Visual Networking Index<\/a> pegs video at 51 percent of all traffic bound for mobile devices. But Cisco is counting on all traffic to mobile smartphones and tablets whether they\u2019re connected to cellular or Wi-Fi networks. According to Cisco\u2019s calculations one third of \u201cmobile\u201d traffic never hits the cell tower, traversing Wi-Fi networks instead.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile McAdam is claiming that half the load on its mobile airwaves is now video, which is frankly quite a lot. McAdam had a good explanation for why: LTE. As its customers move to LTE\u2019s faster pipe, the video experience improves \u2013 buffering and choppiness drop away \u2013 which in turn encourages more video watching. In fact, a better connection seems to naturally begets more data usage in general. Only 23 percent of Verizon\u2019s subscribers have an LTE device<\/a>, but they account for well over 50 percent of Verizon\u2019s network traffic.<\/p>\n

I doubt Verizon is saddened by this development. As more customers start consuming more video they\u2019ll have to upgrade (the ones that aren\u2019t still clinging to their grandfathered unlimited plans, at least) \u00a0to bigger data plans to handle that load.<\/p>\n

But Verizon does face a perplexing problem. It\u2019s doubtful many customers are going to start paying upwards of $100 a month<\/a> for the 10 GB-plus data plans necessary to support hard-core video consumption. So while it wants to encourage its customers to consume more video, there are plenty of economic incentives convincing mobile subscribers to do the opposite.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably why we\u2019ve been hearing McAdam talk up new mobile video technologies like LTE-broadcast<\/a> lately. By streaming content to multiple users simultaneously<\/a> \u2013 either for immediate or later consumption \u2013 Verizon can deliver more video at less cost. Theoretically, at least, it can pass those sizable savings on to its customers, thus encouraging mobile video\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

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