The Pragmatic Innovator

Understanding the Capacity Crunch & the Necessity of Smarter Networks

There is no doubt that video will drive revenue growth and innovation for wireless services in the future.  But there is a fundamental mismatch between the amount of spectrum available on the planet and the demand that streaming video places on that spectrum. Let’s discuss why.

Streaming video technology is not scalable due to its inherently degrading effect on the networks and inconsistent user quality.  Consider that the amount of capacity (the continuous bit rate) required for streaming video is determined by the quality of the video playback to be delivered and the resolution of the rendition – the screen size. A true HD stream to a large flat screen TV requires tens of megabits per second whereas a video stream to a small Smartphone screen with reasonable minimum playback quality can be as low as 300kbps.

In contrast, voice services and SMS services use a fraction of the bandwidth consumed by streaming video. The table below compares the bandwidth consumption for various wireless applications over a typical session duration.

Pretty sobering figures, especially when you consider that streaming services typically don’t generate any additional revenue for the operators.  Opanga has been working with wireless operators to help them create smarter networks and distribute better quality video by prepositioning content— all without deploying substantial new capital equipment.

In the next few weeks, we will be sharing with you exactly how we are doing this, but in the meantime, we want to know what you think. Is streaming a long term viable business proposition?  What do you feel are better ways to distribute video over broadband wireless networks?