Skyfire turns from mobile browsers to optimizing video for operators

Skyfire has launched Rocket 2.0, a mobile video–crunching, operator-grade solution that can offer the ability to instantly add 25% more bandwidth to a congested cell tower or backhaul link.

The maker of the popular mobile browser (it's the number two or three most popular Android app of all time, depending whom you ask), says that by leveraging cloud technology and network intelligence, smartphone video can be optimized for bandwidth savings of up to 75%, and that user experiences on smartphones, tablets and laptops can be boosted by an average 60%.

The original version of Rocket could only compress up to 40% of video streams; now, with instant MP4 optimization added, it can handle more than 90%.

Rocket 2.0 is optimized for 4G LTE and 3G networks with subscriber bases from 2 million to 100 million plus. And — notable figure here — can enable an average tier-one operator to see savings of $100 million in deferred capital expenditure and operating costs in the first year of deployment. An ROI payback, Skyfire said in a statement, could come in "just months."

Mobile video is, literally, a growing concern for mobile operators. Netflix streaming video currently makes up nearly 30% of Internet traffic in the U.S., and video accounts for 52% of all mobile data — a figure expected to rise to 66% by 2013, according to Cisco.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, in his November written testimony presented to a Senate subcommittee, regarding AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile, emphasized mobile HD video as being a major player in the carrier's need to expand its networks and "invest at a torrid pace."

AT&T estimates that in the first month and a half of 2015, it'll carry the same about of mobile data traffic as it did during the whole of 2010.

"Skyfire has put five years and $28 million into researching, developing and field testing our content optimization technology," CEO Jeffrey Glueck said in a statement.

Glueck added that Skyfire is currently deploying Rocket 2.0 with a tier-one North American operator — the LTE-deploying AT&T, perhaps? — and has been selected for trials across the U.S. and Europe.

Said Glueck, "The technology will deliver game-changing cost savings for beleaguered wireless operators."