Worldwide mobile data usage has recorded a significant increase of around 30 per cent in Q2/09. 
Claiming to have collected data from the leading mobile operators, Allot Communications said Asia-Pacific lead the charge with growth of 36 per cent, Europe registered a 28 per cent improvement, and the Americas had recorded a 25 per cent boost in traffic.
By collating operator data from around the globe--which Allot believes provides it with data traffic information from around 150 million users--the company is able to provide insight into how mobile data networks are being used and what applications are driving this upsurge in traffic.
Allot claims this latest report indicates mobile subscribers, particularly heavy data users, do not distinguish between their fixed and mobile networks, and seem to expect the same service from the Internet, irrespective of their access method. This is beginning to cause, says Allot, problems for mobile operators where the cells themselves can serve as bottlenecks, often greatly contributing to network congestion and delay.
With respect to the application being used, the Q2 study highlighted:
- HTTP browsing as the most popular application globally with usage increased by 21 per cent.
- HTTP streaming was the fastest growing application with a usage increase of 58 per cent. This included streaming sites such as YouTube and Hulu.
- HTTP downloads, which experienced 34 per cent growth globally, are now almost as popular as P2P, and in EMEA have even overtaken P2P in popularity.
- P2P accounts for 42 per cent of bandwidth utilisation in the busiest cells on the network, but only 21 per cent in the average cell.
"This report enables operators to map out subscriber behaviour in all its complexities," said Rami Hadar, president and CEO of Allot Communications. "It highlights how subscribers are really using their mobile data services and provides an invaluable overview of the industry and the changes that are taking place as it matures."
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