Video now accounts for around 80% of global mobile data traffic. Whether it’s catching up on your favorite series, watching a live event, or sharing a viral moment, video has become the most dominant form of mobile data. However, behind the scenes, things are becoming increasingly complicated. As more video services encrypt their traffic to protect user privacy, telecom operators are losing visibility into how these services perform across their networks. That means they can no longer easily monitor video quality, detect issues, or ensure that their subscribers are enjoying a smooth streaming experience.
Why Video Quality Still Matters
Subscribers may not always notice when their emails take a second longer to load, but they are more likely to see when a video freezes mid-play or drops to a blurry resolution. A few seconds of buffering can lead to frustration, app abandonment, and even churn. With numerous video streaming options at subscribers’ fingertips, including premium telco services, poor video experiences can be costly for operators in both revenue and reputation.
This is why gaining visibility into encrypted video traffic, without compromising privacy, is now more critical than ever.
The Rise of Encrypted Streaming
Streaming platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime have adopted adaptive video streaming technologies, including MPEG-DASH and HLS. These protocols adjust video quality in real time based on network conditions, ensuring a smoother viewing experience.
However, when combined with encryption (such as HTTPS or QUIC), they become virtually invisible to traditional network monitoring tools. So, how can operators keep up with the streaming era if they can’t even see what’s happening on their networks?
The Need for Smarter, AI-Driven Insights
The answer lies in the power of intelligence. To address this challenge, AI-powered analytics are leveraged, which interpret encrypted traffic patterns and transform them into meaningful insights. These solutions don’t rely on decrypting the video itself; instead, they utilize advanced machine learning models to analyze network behaviors and infer performance indicators, such as buffering frequency, video resolution, and start delays.
This enables operators to evaluate the actual user experience, pinpoint problem areas, and take proactive measures, all while maintaining user privacy.
From Visibility to Value
By unlocking insights from encrypted video streams, operators can:
- Optimize network performance in real time
- Improve customer satisfaction and reduce churn
- Create new opportunities to monetize video services
- Make smarter decisions across operations, marketing, and care
As video consumption continues to soar, these capabilities aren’t just a nice-to-have; they’re essential for delivering the always-on, always-perfect digital experience that today’s subscribers demand.
How RADCOM Helps
RADCOM delivers the power of intelligence with AI-powered solutions that help telecom operators understand and enhance video experiences across encrypted networks. With RADCOM ACE, operators gain real-time, end-to-end insights into streaming quality and user satisfaction, all while adhering to strict privacy standards. Ensuring the telecom operators have zero blind spots and total user visibility.
Using cutting-edge machine learning, RADCOM enables operators to detect video issues, such as rebuffering, playback delays, and resolution drops, before they impact customers. These actionable insights empower telecom operators to fine-tune their networks, resolve issues faster, and ensure that every subscriber enjoys a seamless, high-quality video experience.
As encrypted streaming becomes the new standard, RADCOM helps operators stay ahead, turning blind spots into business opportunities and ensuring network intelligence meets customer satisfaction.
Discover how RADCOM enables deeper visibility into video streaming performance. Read our white paper.
