Data published by ACG Research reveals that Google, Facebook and YouTube dominate in terms of mobile traffic carried by a Tier 2 mobile operator in North America. Traffic analysis was provided by Vistapointe, which specializes in cloud-based and business intelligence solutions for mobile and enterprise Wi-Fi operators.
Some key findings:
- Consumption of multimedia applications (YouTube, Netflix, and ESPN) is approximately 70% of total usage; capping of unlimited data plans has led consumers to consciously move toward using multimedia apps, mostly smartphones, while on Wi-Fi coverage.
- Utilities traffic is approximately 25% of the total data: Signaling (GTP attach, detach messages & PDP context activations) and IP control plane & session establishment traffic, initiated by smartphones; mobile carriers have been inaccurately complaining about smartphone control and signaling traffic, claiming that it is huge.
- Apple, Google &Microsoft are emerging as the smartphone OS app store leaders: Google dominates in the mobile application ecosystem, both from data traffic consumption and percentage of users; Facebook is second in data traffic consumption and percentage of users.
Vistapointe, which is a start-up based in San Ramon, California, offers a Mobile Analytics and Business Intelligence solution for 3G and 4G networks. It non-intrusively taps into data and signaling layer interfaces to offer actionable insights that can be leveraged to profile mobile data customers dynamically, optimize the RAN and packet core backbone to enhance QoE, and identify opportunities to drive marketing programs and create innovative new service plans.
