Sandvine Report: Netflix's British Invasion, WhatsApp is Happening in Africa

WATERLOO, Ontario, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Sandvine, (TSX:SVC) a leading provider of intelligent broadband network solutions for fixed and mobile operators, today released its latest bi-annual Internet traffic trends report, entitled "Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2014". The report is based on data from a selection of Sandvine's 250-plus communications service provider (CSP) customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

"While the app of choice varies drastically between continents and countries, this latest report makes it clear that mobile messaging matters," said Mr. Caputo. "An African mobile operator that used Sandvine's solutions to offer affordable daily, weekly and monthly zero-rated WhatsApp plans saw the application soar above 20% of network usage. There's no better example of the power of service innovation, because users that otherwise could not afford to access the Internet from mobile devices are now rapidly adopting data plans."

Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2014 contains findings from fixed and mobile networks around the world, including:

On Demand Video 

• North American subscribers who exhibit cord cutting behavior (top 15^th percentile of video users) are dominating network usage:
  • Consuming on average 212GB a month, more than seven times the 29GB of a typical subscriber
  • Viewing the equivalent of 100 hours of video each month
  • Accounting for the majority (54%) of total monthly network traffic
• In United Kingdom and Ireland, Netflix is now the second largest source of traffic during the peak evening hours, accounting for over 17.8% of downstream fixed access traffic
• The availability of high bitrate Super HD content to all Netflix subscribers in North America increased Netflix's peak downstream traffic share from 31.6% to 34.2%. Amazon Instant Video continues to gain share, but still only accounts for 1.9% of downstream traffic

Messaging 

• On an African mobile network where the majority of subscribers have talk and text plans, WhatsApp accounts for over 23% of traffic due to the introduction of a low-cost, unlimited access plan for the service that is designed to drive data adoption
• WhatsApp is the leading messaging service in Africa accounting for almost 4% of traffic on mobile networks
• Snapchat generates more traffic than any other third-party messaging app on North American mobile networks, and on one network accounted for an astonishing 12% of total traffic on New Year's Eve
• On several LTE networks in Asia, third-party messaging apps such as Line or WeChat are used by over 40% of mobile subscribers each hour.

Live Streaming 

• Twitch.TV, a live streaming service where video gamers watch each other play, has established itself among the top-15 applications on many fixed networks across the globe, and now generates more traffic than HBO GO on US networks
• During the World Cup, live streaming of matches is predicted to account for over 40% of network traffic on some Latin American mobile networks

"Just over two years after its launch, Netflix has become the second largest driver of traffic on fixed access networks in the UK and Ireland," said Dave Caputo, President and CEO, Sandvine. "This rapid ascent underscores how important it is that operators have business intelligence solutions in place to accurately measure and monitor the impact that over-the-top services have on their networks."

Check out Sandvine's Internet Phenomena blog on a regular basis for the latest trends, predictions and phenomena impacting Internet usage around the world.

GLOBAL INTERNET PHENOMENA REPORT METHODOLOGY
Sandvine's Global Internet Phenomena Reports are based on a representative cross-section of Sandvine's data from a selection of Sandvine's 250-plus customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Data is gathered over a one-month period and is completely subscriber-anonymous. No identifiable information of any kind, including IP addresses are collected during the study. Sandvine's network equipment analyzes data from an application utilization level and is not content aware.

ABOUT SANDVINE
Sandvine's network policy control solutions add intelligence to fixed, mobile and converged communications service provider networks to enable services that can increase revenue and reduce network costs. Powered by Sandvine's Policy Engine and SandScript policy language, Sandvine's networking equipment performs end-to-end policy control functions including traffic classification, and policy decision and enforcement across the data, control and business planes. Sandvine's products provide actionable business insight, the ability to deploy new subscriber services and tools to optimize traffic while enhancing subscriber Internet quality of experience.

Sandvine's network policy control solutions are deployed in more than 250 networks in over 90 countries, serving hundreds of millions of data subscribers worldwide, http://www.sandvine.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements in this release which are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements") and are made pursuant to the "safe harbour" provisions of such laws. Statements related to potential benefits of, and demand for, Sandvine's products are forward looking statements which are subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Sandvine to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements.

For further information:
INVESTOR CONTACT
Rick Wadsworth
Sandvine
+1-519-880-2400 ext. 3503
rwadsworth@sandvine.com

MEDIA CONTACT
Dan Deeth
Sandvine
+1-519-880-2232
ddeeth@sandvine.com