Sandvine report: Netflix and YouTube account for 50% of all North American fixed network data

Peer-to-peer disappears? Now less than 10% in North America fixed line

WATERLOO, ON, Nov. 11, 2013 /CNW/ - Sandvine, (TSX:SVC) a leading provider of intelligent broadband network solutions for fixed and mobile operators, today released its Internet traffic trends report, entitled "Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013 ", based on data from a selection of Sandvine's 250-plus service provider customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Report is published twice a year.

"For the first time ever, peer-to-peer filesharing has fallen below 10% of total traffic in North America, which is a stark difference from the 60% share it consumed 11 years ago," said Dave Caputo, CEO, Sandvine. "Since 2009 on-demand entertainment has consumed more bandwidth than "experience later" applications like peer-to-peer filesharing and we had projected it would inevitably dip below 10% of total traffic by 2015. It's happened much faster. This phenomena, combined with the related rise in video applications like Netflix and YouTube, underscores a big reason why Sandvine's business has grown beyond traffic management to new service creation."

Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H2013 includes findings from fixed and mobile networks around the world.

• Average monthly mobile usage in Asia-Pacific now exceeds 1 gigabyte, driven by video, which accounts for 50% of peak downstream traffic. This is more than double the 443 megabyte monthly average in North America.
• In Europe, Netflix, less than two years since launch, now accounts for over 20% of downstream traffic on certain fixed networks in the British Isles. It took almost four years for Netflix to achieve 20% of data traffic in the United States.
• Instagram and Dropbox are now top-ranked applications in many regions across the globe. In mobile networks in Latin America, Instagram, due to the recent addition of video, is now the 7^th top ranked downstream application, making it a prime candidate for inclusion in tiered data plans which are popular in the region.
• Netflix (31.6%) holds its ground as the leading downstream application in North America and together with YouTube (18.6%) accounts for over 50% of downstream traffic on fixed networks.
• P2P Filesharing now accounts for less than 10% of total daily traffic in North America. Five years ago it accounted for over 31%.
• Video accounts for less than 6% of traffic in mobile networks in Africa, but is expected to grow faster than in any other region before it. Blackberry use in Africa? Blackberry email and BBM messaging accounts for over 13% of traffic across the continent.

"You have to be in Africa to understand Africa. Sandvine now has customers in 20 countries within Africa and we are pleased to include truly representative data on this high-growth market in this year's report," said Mr. Caputo. "The African market is especially unique, as most users are connecting to the Internet for the first time through mobile devices, and using applications like Skype, Facebook and WhatsApp. In other parts of the world, new users have first connected to the Internet via a fixed line.  While video is a small part of mobile bandwidth in the region today, we predict Africa will be the fastest video adopter and operators will respond with creative device-and application-based service tiers."

Check out Sandvine's Internet Phenomena blog on a regular basis for the latest trends, predictions and phenomena impacting Internet usage around the world.

Join Sandvine at Broadband Traffic Management booth #19 and AfricaCom booth P17 for more insight into Internet trends and network policy control.

GLOBAL INTERNET PHENOMENA REPORT METHODOLOGY
Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Reports are based on a representative cross-section of Sandvine's data from a selection of Sandvine's 250-plus customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific.  Data is gathered over a one-month period and is completely subscriber-anonymous.  No identifiable information of any kind, including IP addresses are collected during the study.  Sandvine's network equipment analyzes data from an application utilization level and is not content aware.

ABOUT SANDVINE
Sandvine's network policy control solutions add intelligence to fixed, mobile and converged communications service provider networks to enable services that can increase revenue and reduce network costs. Powered by Sandvine's Policy Engine and SandScript policy language, Sandvine's networking equipment performs end-to-end policy control functions including traffic classification, and policy decision and enforcement across the data, control and business planes.  Sandvine's products provide actionable business insight, the ability to deploy new subscriber services and tools to optimize traffic while enhancing subscriber Internet quality of experience.

Sandvine's network policy control solutions are deployed in more than 250 networks in over 90 countries, serving hundreds of millions of data subscribers worldwide, www.sandvine.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this release which are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements") and are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions of such laws. Statements related to potential benefits of, and demand for, Sandvine's products are forward looking statements which are subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Sandvine to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. 

SOURCE: Sandvine