FC Member Blog

‘The First to Blink Loses’ or ‘A Real Tsunami Warning’

BY Dilithium VideoSpace | 12-14-2009 | 4:40 PM

This blog is written by a member of our blogging community and expresses that member's views alone.

With ATT’s Ralph de la Vega making the stunning announcement last
week that 3% of its smart phone users accounted for 40% of its network
capacity while pointing a finger at video makes a very compelling story
for video optimization. The iPhone has enabled and enamored so many
users to access video that adoption will only grow and grow. His
announcement is equivalent to a seismograph shaking its little needle
off the paper.

The long awaited video tsunami is pulling the water away from the
beach now. And it’s all going to come crashing back. De la Vega
hinted of usage-based charging or ‘other’ incentives to motivate users
to throttle back. There will be a backlash on ATT. Subscribers will
get sensitive about dropped calls, QoS, and monitor their bills
closely. This will lead to a rash of customer service calls for
credits, justifications, explanations. Many will jump ship to Verizon.
Handset makers and content providers are going to complain that
uptake is slowed, etc. (That’s another story all together regarding
‘over-the-top’ plays).

But the savvy operator will take note gird up for this onslaught
before it reaches them. As iPhone and Android devices take off
worldwide, the operators that remember their Boy Scout motto, ‘Be
Prepared’, are going to protect themselves with bandwidth optimization
facilities such as Dilithium’s DVO. DVO provides the operator the
ability to control, throttle, and reduce the impact that video puts on
the network. This is just the beginning.