14 DAY TRIAL // A portion of 22% of all mobile bandwidth is consumed on YouTube, according to Allot Communications, a supplier of service optimization solutions for mobile broadband service providers.
Video streaming remains the largest application in terms of mobile bandwidth consumption, being responsible for 39% of it. Of this, over half (52%) is attributed to YouTube.
The amopunt of bandwidth spent by mobile users on YouTube has grown from 17% during the first half of 2010, to 22% during the same period this year. Overall, mobile bandwidth grew by a total of 77% during the first half of 2011.
The next most bandwidth-intensive application is file sharing, both via p2p and direct download from file hosting websites. It accounts for 29% of all mobile bandwidth.
VoIP and instant messaging applications have also registered significant growth, now accounting for 4% of the total consumed mobile bandwidth. Skype is responsible for 82% of such traffic.
As far as app downloads go, Apple's App Store is the the undisputed leader with 84% of the traffic, compared to Android Market's 13%.
Mobile users are also increasingly using social media sites. Bandwidth consumption associated with Twitter and Facebook has grown by 297% and 166%, respectively.
This trend of certain applications being responsible for large chunks of mobile traffic has forced operators to come up with application-aware charging models.
"OTT applications continue to shift the balance of power from the operators to the content and app providers," said Rami Hadar, President and CEO of Allot Communications.
"This presents a real challenge for survival to which operators have already begun to respond. We are seeing operators taking the opportunity to evolve their service plans, away from 'unlimited' and towards application-aware models, in order to meet this challenge," he added.
According to the company, almost a third (32%) of surveyed providers have already implemented such plans. Allot's report is based on data collected between January 1 and June 30 from mobile operators worldwide that have a user base of 250 million subscribers.