The past few weeks, I have mentioned the February 2016 Cisco VNI report to make some points about WiFi.  However, the Cisco VNI report also has some other very interesting information that I wanted to point out in the next few blogs. 

Today, I want to make some points about mobile video.  As readers of this blog know, I have been very bullish about the potential of mobile video.  3G was the technology that enabled mobile video, but there were clearly limitations (the spinning circle became pretty ubiquitous to those of us that tried mobile video on 3G) and people used it only if they were committed to it.  But with WiFi and 4G, bandwidth availability and improved speeds have enabled video to be similar to a wired home experience.  And with larger screens, the viewing experience is also better.  As such, it’s no surprise that the Cisco VNI reports that mobile video traffic accounted for 55 percent of total mobile data traffic in 2015, and that by 2020 video will account for 75 percent of total mobile data traffic.

What video are people watching?  By all accounts, streaming in one form or another, ranging from YouTube and Netflix, accounts for most of the video.  And we’re seeing more and more video advertisements as well, which isn’t surprising considering we see advertisements all the time if we go online from our wired home computer.  That model is tried and true.  And while streaming will ultimately continue to dominate the mobile video space, video value-added services are becoming more and more prevalent.  Services like video chatting, video messaging, making video conference calls / having video collaboration calls, and video IVRs are finding their way.