Communications and Technology Industry Research

Ever wonder what why people are staring at the their smartphones or tablet computers for longer than it takes to check an e-mail? If you had to guess, there's a nearly one in four chance it's YouTube, says the results of a new report on mobile Web usage.

Allot (News - Alert) Communications’ MobileTrends Report, which was released today, found that of all mobile Web usage, 22 percent of it can be accounted for by YouTube (News - Alert). When it comes specifically to mobile video streaming content, YouTube accounts for fully 52 percent of that.

Overall, mobile data bandwidth usage grew 77 percent during the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year.

During the first half of this year, video streaming grew by 93 percent and is now the single largest bandwidth hog. Here's the breakdown of how people are using the mobile Web, according to the report:

• Video: 39 percent
• File-sharing: 29 percent
• Web browsing: 29 percent
• Voice over IP: 4 percent

(These numbers add up to 101 percent presumably because of rounding up.)

While video may consume the greatest percentage of mobile bandwidth, it's not the fastest-growing application. That honor goes to social networking. Use of Twitter (News - Alert) increased an astonishing 297 percent in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last, and Facebook use grew 168 percent. Voice over IP applications like Skype (News - Alert) and others grew by a healthy 101 percent.

At the same time people are using more and more mobile bandwidth, the wireless carriers are limiting their mobile data plans. The study found that 51 percent of wireless carriers no longer offer subscribers unlimited or “all you can eat” data plans.

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