Mobile Web Insights – Too Much Traffic from Unknown Devices

by Mayur Pitamber, Product Marketing Strategist

It is hardly surprising that the iPhone is responsible for driving the most data traffic across Operator X's network. What is surprising is which device comes in second: "unknown." This unknown category could consist of what we call bandit devices or it could be the result of an often malicious Java app (or series of apps) masking the device user agent.

Bandit devices are unidentified, unlocked iPhones, USB modems or netbooks from other networks being used on Operator X's network. Since this unknown category generated close to 345 GB of traffic in four days, we're looking at the potential of 2.6 terabytes in one month. It's critical for Operator X to drill down, identify masked devices and separate them from illegitimate devices. Depending on their findings, the true cost could be calculated and Operator X could decide whether to block this device/app from the network.

As operating systems become more open, masking apps will be more common, so it is important for operators to get ahead of this trend.

The above is based on four days of recent data from "Operator X," a tier-one European mobile network operator with approximately 10 million subscribers.

Mobile Web Insights is our ongoing look at real trends from real customer data. Our first three reports are also available for download.