Mobile data surges 68% in first half of 2010

Whether or not carriers will admit it, one thing’s for sure in the overall scheme of things: mobile data is being used at a faster clip than they can increase capacity.
Take Allot Communications Ltd.’s latest report, wherein it calculated mobile data bandwidth usage increased by 68% in the first half of this year. There’s no real surprises in the study, but there’s even more data to back up and highlight the trends that have defined the mobile industry for years now.
Video is still the biggest consumer of mobile data at a rate of 35%. It’s also the largest growing application type with a 92% increase, thanks in large part to YouTube, which is fresh off a 123% jump.
To get a sense of how quickly and widely social media is being adopted by users, there’s Twitter Inc., which grew its share of mobile data bandwidth overall by 310% and Facebook Inc. continued to take mobile by storm with a 200% leap.
“The results of our latest MobileTrends Report reinforces that mobile broadband operators continue to face growing challenges as subscribers demand real-time content through an array of smartphones and Internet devices,” said Rami Hadar, president and CEO of Allot. “The findings also clearly demonstrate the close ties between mobile broadband and social networking. Whether it’s YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, social networking via mobile devices is becoming a ‘must have’ for subscribers and we expect that this is just the beginning.”
The report also found that peer-to-peer networking and http-based downloads combined for a 31% share of bandwidth for the six-month period, marking a growth rate of 80%. Finally, Voice over Internet Protocol and instant messaging grew by 84% and Skype Ltd. remains at the head of the VoIP pack with an 83% share of mobile VoIP bandwidth.