Video is choking mobile networks

MAKER OF BLACKBERRYS Research In Motion (RIM) thinks video on smartphones isn't quite a killer application because of bottlednecked mobile networks.

Reuters reported that RIM said networks are choking on data intensive video playback. But RIM also called on developers to optimise more efficient ways of delivering video.

Smartphones are network hogs, taking up to 30 times more bandwidth than standard mobiles. The increasing popularity of Iphones and Android smartphones means staccato data delivery, with 3G networks struggling to provide enough bandwidth.

"I still don't know and I don't think anyone knows if video is a killer app for smartphones," RIM co-chief executive officer Mike Lazaridis said at a conference. "I don't particularly think it is."

"If you think that today's 3G as a browsing experience is a challenge to these data networks, imagine what a video streaming or download experience is going to be as these screens start to look like HD televisions in terms of resolutions," said Lazaridis.

We knew Lazaridis was going somewhere with this and he apparently saved it for the end of the conference. He told the masses that video on a Crackberry is three to eight times more efficient because RIM uses some of its own servers to process the data streams.

Delivering his punchline, Lazaridis concluded, "What that means for the carrier, though, is after they have committed all those billions of dollars on new network technology and new network spectrum, they can have three BlackBerrys using the same network capacity as one of the other smartphones." µ