Mobile video will be 75% of 4G traffic by 2020: Huawei, Ovum

NEW DELHI: According to a joint whitepaper from Huawei and OVUM, a leading global technology research and advisory firm, by 2020, mobile video usage will have increased to about 75% of total 4G traffic, up from just 15% in 2016.

Entitled, ‘The Evolution of Big Video – Examining telco transformation video opportunities’, the whitepaper highlights the current situation for telcos who provide video services for the entertainment and communications markets, as well as for vertical industry segments.

Focused on the usage and penetration of video among the individual, family, and enterprise customer sectors, the paper also unveils the latest trends for the evolution of big video and provides suggestions and insights in supporting telcos journeying through ICT and Big Video transformation.

The paper offers a comprehensive analysis on the current status of the video business, as well as insights on the industry’s future business outlook, possible business models, subscribers’ consumption trends and the latest technology-driven forces. Specifically, the white paper points out that:

"By 2020, mobile video usage will have increased to about 75% of total 4G traffic, from 15% in 2016, with 4K UHD video, social media video, mobile video, VR/AR applications, 5G/FTTx network penetration and latest IT technology trends (cloud computing, bid data, Telco OS etc.) being the driving forces boosting video usage," the report said.

Enterprise video is also becoming a major factor of this growing video trend. On top of existing video services such as training, meetings with clients and remote medical services, a series of new video conferencing tools are being broadly deployed in various industries.

Video conferencing is quickly shaping the strategic infrastructure business of telcos. Major players are exploring new ways to implement successful strategies for enterprise video, striving to be the leaders in the field amidst the video business transformation opportunities that are available.

Since big video has already been identified as a strategic imperative, the paper points out that IPTV, SVOD and the broad application of video services will influence how telcos build their big video business strategies. Three important steps to success are:

First, telcos will need to fully capitalize on the opportunities offered by targeted bundled services: identify individual, family and enterprise groups as the three major markets into which telcos should provide target-oriented and innovative bundled services, such as aggregated online or mobile video services and TV entertainment offerings.
Second, telcos should strive to ensure customer loyalty and retention by exploring new video business monetization models from simply paying for services to paying for a differentiated, high-quality video user experience.

Third, yet as important, telcos should attempt to drive integration across the entire video industry ecosystem to maximize the market opportunities for all participants in the video distribution value chain.

"Given the explosive growth of video usage, in order to be successful, telcos will need to be proactive and strategically plan their video business development blueprint. They will need to transform their networks from simple data conduits to video-centric networks, and drive the growth of the industry through innovative business models and collaboration in the industry ecosystem," it said.

The paper jointly presents the insights of OVUM and Huawei’s best practices in the field of big video, and is supported by comprehensive research from leading telcos around the world. Huawei has stated that it would continue its commitment to explore the big video market, with the view to support the evolution of big video and support telcos’ success in this area.