Bandwidth Management Will Continue to Grow, Report Finds

Network operators seeking greater profits from broadband data services are benefiting from bandwidth management technologies, says Light Reading Insider

PRNewswire
NEW YORK
(:UBM.L)
Oct 23, 2008

NEW YORK, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Bandwidth management technologies will play a critical role in network operator efforts to squeeze more profit from broadband data services by replacing unlimited-use service packages with more sophisticated usage-based offerings, according to the latest report from Light Reading Insider (http://www.lightreading.com/insider), a paid research service of TechWeb's Light Reading (http://www.lightreading.com/).

Bandwidth Bottleneck: Service Providers Tackle IP Throttling examines applications in the bandwidth management market, including bandwidth management technology differences and marketing strategies. It also explores the future of bandwidth management, including why the technology is necessary, challenges the market faces, vendor partnerships and acquisitions, and the future investment strategies that vendors are considering. Additionally, it provides a comparative analysis of ten of the leading vendors in the bandwidth management industry.

For a list of companies analyzed in this report, see: http://img.lightreading.com/lri/pdf/lri1008companies.pdf

"The public has been prepared for the reality that bandwidth no longer is an all-you-can-eat commodity," says Denise Culver, research analyst for Light Reading Insider. Service providers are realizing they cannot keep up with the demand for bandwidth, while keeping the costs as low as possible for everyone. "Service providers no longer intend to maintain their strategy of, 'If they build it, we'll throw more bandwidth at it.' "

P2P (or peer-to-peer) applications are one of the biggest reasons the need for bandwidth management has grown so much, Culver notes. She also explores many other reasons bandwidth management will continue to be important: "As service providers begin to charge increased rates for more bandwidth, the need for improved customer service and quality of experience increases dramatically," Culver says. "Furthermore, service providers deploying triple-play solutions are struggling with supplying adequate video bandwidth for consumer broadcast video service." Among other reasons, these will keep bandwidth management usage growing in the near future.

Key findings of Bandwidth Bottleneck: Service Providers Tackle IP Throttling include:

  --  Service providers are now facing an issue in bandwidth management that
      they have not encountered before: how to tell customers they must pay
      more for tiered access to a service that was previously flat-rate.
  --  Service providers agree that only 1 to 2 percent of their customer
      base needs bandwidth management today; however, this number is
      expected to increase significantly as usage of bandwidth-hogging
      applications grows beyond the early-adopter set.
  --  One of the most obvious challenges the bandwidth management industry
      faces is the current regulatory and political climate surrounding the
      concept.
  --  As service providers continue to educate the public about how their
      new bandwidth service offerings will look in the future, they will
      likely begin to change how they do business in the bandwidth world.

Bandwidth Bottleneck: Service Providers Tackle IP Throttling provides critical insight and analysis for a range of industry participants, including:

  --  Bandwidth management vendors that are working with service providers
      on solutions to help manage their networks
  --  Service providers who are utilizing bandwidth management products
  --  Vendors seeking and experiencing many partnerships and acquisitions in
      bandwidth management services
  --  Service providers educating the public about how their new bandwidth
      service offerings will look in the future

Bandwidth Bottleneck: Service Providers Tackle IP Throttling is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Light Reading Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

To subscribe, or for more information, please visit: http://www.lightreading.com/insider. For more information on all of Light Reading's Insider services, please visit http://www.lightreading.com/research.

To request a free executive summary of the report, or for details on multi-user licensing options, please contact:

  Jeff Claudino
  Director of Sales
  Insider Research Services
  619-229-9940
  claudino@lightreading.com

  Press/analyst contact:

  Dennis Mendyk
  Managing Director
  Insider Research Services
  201-587-2154
  mendyk@heavyreading.com


  About Light Reading

Founded in 2000, Light Reading (http://www.lightreading.com/) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Expo London, The Tower Summit @ CTIA, and Optical Expo, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

About TechWeb

TechWeb (techweb.com/aboutus), the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

  * 13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections

  About United Business Media Limited (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/)

United Business Media Limited (UBM) is a global media and marketing services company that informs markets and brings the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print, and with the information they need to do business successfully. UBM serves professional and commercial communities, from IT professionals to doctors, from journalists to jewelry dealers, from farmers to pharmacists around the world. UBM employs more than 6,500 people in more than 30 countries. UBM's businesses operating in the US include CMPMedica, Commonwealth Business Media, Everything Channel, PR Newswire, RISI, TechInsights, TechWeb and Think Services. UBM is listed on the London Stock Exchange (UBM.L) and has a market capitalization of $2.5 billion.

SOURCE: Light Reading Insider

CONTACT: Jeff Claudino, Director of Sales, Insider Research Services,
+1-619-229-9940, claudino@lightreading.com; Press/analyst contact: Dennis
Mendyk, Managing Director, Insider Research Services, +1-201-587-2154,
mendyk@heavyreading.com

Web Site: http://www.lightreading.com/
http://www.lightreading.com/insider
http://www.lightreading.com/research
http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/