Beauty Speed Tests Regulated

The US FCC regulator decided to conduct an official mobile broadband performance test program, following the success of the wireline program. This step comes not a minute too soon since mobile broadband speeds were not regulated and one could set up and perform their own testing criteria.

Being the fastest is one of the main interests of any mobile network marketing executive, and recently it has become even more important. Revenue share from voice and text is dropping, content revenues are diminishing, and since everyone sells iPhones - devices are no longer a factor for competition. The only competitive factor left is: Who has the fastest network? 

Since there is no regulation on download speed and there is a BIG difference between advertised and effective throughput for mobile networks, we need to ask: How are network speed tests defined?  Are the tests run with the help of applications like Speedtest or BenchBee,  which simply test uplink and downlink download speed,  or are the tests more comprehensive, and the network tested for fast web page download, fast application response time, and smooth video? 

Unfortunately, the simple speed tests are the ones mostly conducted. The most common mobile device used for speed testing is the iPhone, since it can’t be customized by the operator unlike other smartphones or even PC dongles, and the comparison is purely on the network service performance.

Who performs speed tests? In many cases this is the domain of technology magazines. They invest a great deal of resources creating methodologies that provide full nationwide coverage, and test the network with various devices in different locations. A good example is PC Magazine in the US that occasionally publishes speed tests (latest review of LTE networks in the US). Another example is Connect Magazine in Germany.

Recently governments and independent organizations have also started conducting network tests. The British Ofcom organization provides UK market speed tests, and the ARCEP in France. It is only natural that the FCC joins this area as well. 

How can operators succeed in the speed test? In order to do well in the test many operators deploy optimization systems, and since most of the tests are repeated, mobile optimization systems provide a better chance for operators to succeed.

Download speed is back as the top factor of competition for mobile operators, whether if it’s important to customers or because it’s the only issue of competition left – the race is on.

--Amir Lapid, Director of Product Marketing

Mobile Traffic Surges During UEFA EURO 2012

As football (soccer) fans already know, last week was the final of UEFA's EURO 2012. And although the game was disappointing for Italy fans (probably an understatement), it showed us interesting trends in mobile data traffic.

During the games, Digital Spy published research showing that 8.3% of British fans were watching the EURO 2012 games on the web via a desktop, notebook computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Using Harmony Analytics, we found the same thing, and not just in Europe.

We observed a 156% increase of traffic to sports sites in Asia-Pacific and a 215% increase in Europe during the final match day. In addition, in Europe, there was a 210% increase in HTTP streaming of live sports broadcasts during the EURO 2012 final match day, while in Asia-Pacific the increase was only 20%. These statistics were reversed for P2P streaming, with a 123% average increase in Asia-Pacific and a 42% average increase in Europe in June, the month of the competition, compared to the same timeframe during the previous month. These findings reflect the differences in the way Europeans and Asians view football over mobile networks.

Unsurprisingly, in North America there was only a minor increase in sport-related traffic during EURO 2012, with an 8% increase in mobile internet traffic for sports sites and a 24% increase in the P2P streaming peak during the games. This demonstrates the popularity of European football in Asia-Pacific and Europe versus North America where, despite David Beckham's best efforts, "soccer" hasn't yet caught on at the same rate as the rest of the world.

With the summer Olympics rapidly approaching, it will be interesting to see how mobile traffic trends are affected. Four years ago, at the Bejing Olympics, iPhones were only a year into the market and iPads were only a pipe dream. With mobile devices of all types penetrating the market in increasing numbers, we look forward to seeing how operators plan for the anticipated surges in traffic. Stay tuned for more Olympic insights ...

-- Naomi Rabbie, Director of Corporate Marketing

Beyond mobile video optimization

Mobile Video Optimization 2012, the only event dedicated entirely to mobile video optimization, starts today. As Bronze sponsors of the event, we are excited to have the opportunity to present our unique capabilities to an audience of European mobile operators. Liam Galin, our President & CEO, will be presenting “Beyond Optimization – Next Generation Services” and Tal Dagan, our Director of Product Management, will be participating in a panel on QoE vs. QoS. 


As a teaser to what will be divulged at the event, we published a press release today revealing minimum quality of experience levels that lead to subscribers abandoning video viewing and downloads. We found that subscribers who experienced eight or more seconds of video stalls (buffering) were 73% more likely to abandon video viewing, resulting in customer frustration and possibly churn. Operators can use this quality of experience metric to determine when and what type of optimization technique to apply to ensure a smooth video viewing experience.


We also found that some subscribers receive more bandwidth than their usage requires while others aren’t receiving enough bandwidth to ensure a smooth video viewing experience. To address this issue, our Harmony platform pinpoints specific areas in the network that are experiencing traffic congestion, whom the affected subscribers are, and the end-to-end experience for specific users, enabling operators to manage service performance proactively and promptly. Harmony is then able to reallocate bandwidth based on the true needs of individual subscribers, thereby ensuring a positive user experience for all.


In addition, by optimizing only where and when required, Harmony ensures a high quality of experience while providing a small footprint solution. This is especially relevant for LTE networks, which are ultra-high capacity networks with enormous amounts of data.


If you’re in the neighborhood, come check us out at Mobile Video Optimization 2012, June 12-13, at the Marriot Hotel in Brussels, Belgium.


-- Naomi Rabbie, Director of Corporate Marketing

Football frustrations – a personal experience

Every football fan (or soccer fan, for those of you in the US) in Europe and worldwide was watching the El Clasico last Saturday. For those readers who are not die-hard football fans, I will just say that this is “The Game” – between the two biggest rivals in the Spanish football league. Needless to say, it’s a big deal.

No doubt, the best viewing experience for a game of this magnitude is a 50” HD TV set in the living room, surrounded by good friends, cold beer, and plentiful snacks. But recently, with the proliferation of large screen smartphones and handsets, a new mobile experience was introduced. In theory, you can now watch entire football matches on your mobile device, in high video resolution, over advanced 3G and 4G mobile networks.  But does this really work, and can it satisfy a true football fan?

Honestly, not always.

First of all, for this kind of experience your mobile device becomes stationary by default. Your device’s battery consumption while watching multimedia is so huge, you have to stay close to a power supply.

Secondly, the video viewing experience is obviously affected by the quality of your network. The high expenses and environmental limitations of mobile networks naturally create bottlenecks during the busy hour, which means not everyone can watch a live game at the same time in a limited geographical area. The result – a frustrating viewing experience with frequent stalls and freezes. And unlike the battery issue, where users are prone to blame the device manufacturer, when your viewing experience is affected, you blame the mobile operator. Is this what I’m paying for?!?

Mobile operators know this but are very limited in how to deal with the problem. They can’t just provide unlimited bandwidth to everyone who wants it. Some operators plan to offer you more bandwidth during the busy hour for extra money. But how would they do this? In order to allocate additional bandwidth for premium users, they will have to reduce the bandwidth of their remaining subscribers. And the most common way to do this is to throttle videos using Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) appliances. While this might solve the problem for premium users, it will also create a lot of unsatisfied customers – those who haven’t upgraded their data packages.

A better alternative would be to adapt the video to a lower bitrate whenever needed. This would make the video watchable for everyone, albeit with slightly lower (but still entirely acceptable) quality. If I had to watch Christiano Ronaldo’s goal, and the network was loaded, I would prefer to see it with slightly lower quality rather than have it freeze at the critical moment right before the kick. And I think my fellow football fans would agree with me.

The El Clasico ended with Madridista fans cheering for a 2-1 victory which probably leads the way to a championship over the glorious Barcelona. And with the new technologies, everyone should be able to see the next nail-biter on their mobile device.

And to help you get the impending summer season started in a typical Spanish style, here is a nice quick way to make your own Sangria:

Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of red wine
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice (natural)
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 100 ml rum
• 3 peaches
• 2 apples

1. Melt the sugar in a small amount boiled water and chill
2. Cut the fruit into small cubes
3. Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and stir well
4. Chill well (better with large ice cubes than small ones, as they chill faster and melt slower)
5. To make it extra festive, you can add 250 ml of vodka

Enjoy!

-- Amir Lapid, Director of Product Management