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Streaming Music, Netflix & Data Rollover to Top Operators' Offers for 2015 - Sandvine

Streaming Music, Netflix & Data Rollover to Top Operators' Offers for 2015 - Sandvine Image Credit: Sandvine

By Dan Deeth,

Media & Industry

Relations Manager, Sandvine. 

When pulling together the Global Internet Phenomena Report, Sandvine has access to an incredible wealth of data. Typically this is data used to present a highly detailed analysis of what is current and happening around the globe, but it can also be used to help predict what will happen in the future. So without further ado, here are Sandvine’s three broad(band) projections for 2015:

#1: STREAMING MUSIC DRIVES SERVICE INNOVATION

In recent years, many of the more innovative service plans around the globe have focused on providing users unmetered access to the social networks of their choice at a reasonable price – either as a bolt on to a full Internet access plan or one in which the user limits their access to only social networking. While we expect adoption of social plans to continue in 2015, the next great wave of service innovation will focus on music. In the US, T-Mobile is already leading the way by zero-rating music services on their network and they claim to be streaming (at no data cost to subscribers) over 66 million songs a day. With this success, we wouldn’t be surprised to see other operators (inside and outside the US) innovate around music services. One possibility could be music services being one of the first widespread applications of sponsored data. It’s not hard to imagine a service like Spotify or Rdio bundling the data cost into the monthly fee for the services.

Dan Deeth,
Media & Industry Relations Manager,
Sandvine

#2: DATA ROLLOVER DRIVES CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Rollover voice minutes have been commonplace in many markets and have proven to significantly reduce customer churn. As data prices becomes more competitive, we expect to see more and more operators offer their subscribers the ability to carry over some of their unused data to the next month to increase loyalty. In the US, C-Spire recently launched this capability with subscribers and we wouldn’t be surprised to also see fixed operators who offer usage-based pricing make data rollover an option to differentiate their services. Rollover may even open the door to data marketplaces, where subscribers with extra data, especially in pre-paid mobile markets, have the ability to share or gift data to their friends or family who are running low.

#3: NETFLIX TO DRAMATICALLY ACCELERATE EUROPEAN AND AUSTRALASIAN BANDWIDTH GROWTH

Netflix has long been a dominant force on North American fixed access networks, accounting for over a third of downstream traffic during peak period. Recently, Netflix expanded to a number of Western European countries and announced plans to launch in Australia and New Zealand in 2015. So what are our words of advice to operators in those countries? Brace yourselves. Why do we say that? Earlier this year, Sandvine revealed that after just 18 months of availability, Netflix accounted for over 20% of traffic on networks in the United Kingdom and Ireland. We expect the rate of adoption will be similar in these new markets and will drive considerable bandwidth growth in 2015 and beyond.

About The Author:
Dan is Sandvine’s Internet Trends Manager, gadget junkie and a author of Sandvine’s Global Internet Phenomena Report. His research is responsible for revealing the facts, fads and future trends about the Internet that are regularly cited by both media and Communications Service Providers across the globe.

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