Study sees dramatic growth in HD mobile video

Almost 40% of mobile video traffic globally is now in HD quality, according to study by traffic management specialist Openwave Mobility.

According to the study, HD has leapt from 5.7% of mobile video traffic four years ago to 38% today. Openwave Mobility expects HD to surpass the 50% threshold by the end of next year.

Openwave Mobility analysed data aggregated from its live deployments with some 30 mobile operators worldwide.

“OTTs have launched a land grab. In 3 years OTTs wiped out voice revenues. In 2.5 years they wiped out messaging revenues. Is mobile data next? You bet. Along with encryption obscuring mobile networks, operators have to grapple with the unstoppable appetite for HD video content from OTT players,” said Openwave Mobility CEO John Giere.

The report found that 75% of all mobile traffic is now encrypted, limiting mobile operators’ ability to maintain Quality of Experience by preventing them from being able to profile or optimise data. UDP encryption has grown faster than predicted thanks to the advance of Google’s QUIC protocol, according to the study. Openwave Mobility predicts that by November 2018, approximately 90% of all mobile internet traffic will be encrypted.