Sandvine

Africa mobile data use rising, broadband speed lags – report

Mobile data connections and services continue to grow strongly in Africa, but the continent lags behind most of the world in terms of high-speed broadband connectivity, according to a report by analyst firm Ovum. However, mobile broadband connections in Africa are set to rise from 96 million in 2013 to 950 million to cover 77.3% of all mobile subscriptions in the continent by the end of 2019.

BitTorrent traffic dropping sharply in US, as VOD wins favour

The amount of traffic generated in the US by BitTorrent, the file sharing internet protocol , has dropped significantly, according to a report from policy control company Sandvine.

Over the past six months BitTorrent accounted for 9.2 per cent of peak-period traffic, down from 11.3 per cent in 2012 and 17.2 per cent in 2011, the report said. Sandvine attributes the drop in the usage of the file sharing protocol to the increasing availability of subscriber-based, paid-for, on-demand content from applications such as Netflix. Indeed, online video service Netflix maintained a 29 per cent peak-period traffic share in the US, ahead of YouTube, which climbs to 15.4 per cent compared to 13.8 per cent in 2012.

Sandvine and Acision partner for business intelligence

Sandvine and Acision have struck a global partnership, offering carriers tools for detailed traffic insight alongside traffic flow control, subscriber control, service creation and intelligent content optimisation.