On February 27, at Mobile World Congress, Mobidia Technology, a leading provider of device-centric, mobile data solutions, and Informa Telecoms & Media, a leading analyst firm, jointly released new research that provides important and compelling insights into worldwide Wi-Fi usage by smartphone users.

For the first time, Mobidia is providing mobile operators and the wider mobile industry ecosystem with an understanding of consumer behavior surrounding data usage on all the networks to which smartphones frequently connect, including mobile home networks, roaming networks and Wi-Fi networks. By looking at this behavior, Mobidia and Informa have been able to draw the following conclusions among others:

• Total data usage on smartphones is much higher than generally reported throughout the industry. In fact, the conclusions show that Wi-Fi data consumptions exceeds cellular by a factor of two-to-one and that Wi-Fi accounted for 70 percent of all smartphone-originated traffic within the sampled user base.
• Across the global smartphone user base sampled, 91 percent of smartphone subscribers use Wi-Fi for data usage purposes.
• It is clear that, for an overwhelming majority of smartphone users, Wi-Fi is employed as the primary data connection of choice.

“We were quite surprised with the findings,” said Mobidia Vice President of Marketing Chris Hill. “Not only did we find that data usage on smartphones was much higher than the typical 100 – 500 megabytes average monthly usage that is often cited, but we also found that Wi-Fi usage often outpaced mobile usage by as much as six-to-one in some countries.”

Mobidia’s data makes it clear that measurement of cellular-only usage patterns is only part of the picture when it comes to how consumers are using data. In fact, Informa’s analysis reveals that a cellular-only measurement of user demand can understate smartphone-originated traffic by a factor of several multiples in the world’s most advanced Wi-Fi markets.

“Building small-screen access revenues into a $100 billion annual market is already a considerable achievement, but today’s mobile data market is arguably still in the early stages of development,” said Thomas Wehmeier, Informa principal analyst. “Indeed, mobile data pricing models prevalent in the market today lag years behind the advanced segmentation seen in the mobile voice market.

Fulfilling the industry’s future growth potential by driving smartphone and data adoption into today’s untapped customer segments will require operators to build an in-depth understanding of all aspects of customer behavior in order to deploy sustainable and profitable pricing models. And Mobidia’s solution can provide the information to help enlighten that understanding.”

Informa and Mobidia collaborated to analyze data collected in January 2012 from tens of thousands of global smartphone users to determine data-usage trends. This data was collected on a strictly anonymous and opt-in basis from a sample of the more than 600,000 people who have downloaded Mobidia’s smartphone application, My Data Manager. The data sample represents smartphone users from more than 600 mobile operators worldwide.

Informa’s findings and conclusions based on Mobidia’s data are fully outlined in a whitepaper titled “Understanding today’s smartphone user: Demystifying data usage trends on cellular & Wi-Fi networks.” In addition to Wi-Fi usage data, the whitepaper also provides interesting insights into time-of-day usage patterns, top app usage, and the frequency of SIM swapping across different networks and geographies.

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AT&T announced on February 07, 2012 that its AT&T U-verse for iPad App, which makes it easy for users to connect their iPad to their TV for an even better viewing experience, is available on the App Store.

Recent studies indicate that the majority of tablet owners use their device simultaneously while watching TV, and with this app users can link their iPad to their choice of any U-verse TV receiver and access several great new features like:

• Extra content and information about the TV show you’re watching, including series overview, episode synopsis, photos, cast and crew information, related TV shows and more.
• A full-featured, intuitive U-verse remote control with channel, guide, DVR, interactive app and on-demand controls, eliminating the need for extra (or lost) remotes throughout the home.
• Advanced search functionality to help you find the content you want.
• Recommendations on what to watch with ratings and reviews.
• Ability to share information about what you are watching with friends on Facebook.

And while you’re on the go, you can:

• Watch hit TV shows and movies over any Wi-Fi connection. Choose from a library of popular content based on your U-verse TV package, including shows and movies from STARZ, ENCORE, TBS, TNT, truTV, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, with more choices added on an ongoing basis.
• Access the U-verse programming guide and DVR scheduling, similar to the functionality available on the U-verse app for iPhone and iPod touch.

You can view a video demo of the app here.

“Today, we are taking our best in class TV experience and taking it to a whole new level by joining two very powerful platforms: your TV and iPad,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility.

“With our new app, AT&T U-verse customers have access to incredible functionality to make the TV experience much richer, from superior search and control functionality, to fresh content that tells you more about what you’re watching, to the ability to share what you’re watching with your friends through social networks. And, when they leave the home, our customers can take the U-verse experience with them.”

Using the U-verse IP platform and in-home U-verse Wi-Fi network, customers can link the app to any U-verse TV receiver in their home. Using a simple one-time set up process for each U-verse receiver, customers just tune to channel 9301 and go through intuitive steps to name their U-verse receivers using a default name like “living room” or “bedroom,” or create a personalized name, to enable the functionality and features.

AT&T U-verse TV was the fastest growing TV service in the country in 2011 and is the only 100 percent Internet Protocol-based television (IPTV) service offered by a national service provider. AT&T U-verse TV ranked “Highest in Residential Television Service Satisfaction in the North Central, South and West Regions,” according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Studies(SM).

The AT&T U-verse for iPad App is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

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