YouTube dominates mobile Internet traffic; mobile VoIP on the rise

Mobile data traffic increased an astounding 72% in the latter half of 2009 as video streaming continued to slice bigger and bigger pieces out of the capacity pie, according to Allot Communication's Mobile Trends report.

YouTube alone accounted for 10% of all worldwide data consumption. Meanwhile VoIP traffic grew 44%, making little impact in the amount of capacity consumed but taking a sizable out of carriers' voice revenues. "VoIP traffic pales in comparison to video but it's very significant to operators because they view it as lost revenue," said Jonathan Gordon, director of marketing for Allot, a deep packet inspection (DPI) vendor that compiles a semi-annual report from its global install base. VoIP accounted for 3% of all call traffic on the mobile network, and that percentage includes calls made over 3G connections, not devices reverting to WiFi. The overall percentage of minutes being placed over a VoIP connection from a mobile device is much higher. Much of the streaming video increase is attributable to the increasing number of laptops connected through 3G, but the rise in VoIP can be blamed on another culprit, Gordon said.