[Tencent Technology] Why do we all feel that traffic is running fast？

Since 4G, people no longer complain that the network speed is slow, but the traffic runs fast. In fact, this is just a new round of history, which has existed since there was a mobile phone online.

Different from voice, the unit usage of traffic is not fixed, and the unit price is not fixed. That is to say, in simple calculation, the previous voice consumption is equal to (how long it takes to make a phone call) multiplied by (unit price), and the current traffic consumption is equal to (how long it takes to surf the Internet) multiplied by (traffic in a unit time period) multiplied by (unit price). In the voice era, people only pay attention to the billing duration and unit price, while in the traffic era, people not only pay attention to the billing duration, but also pay attention to the quantity and unit price of traffic per unit time. What is more troublesome is that the flow rate and quantity of traffic per unit time are always changing because of different application scenarios, networks, terminals and applications.

Traffic does run fast, and it is getting faster and faster, just like being stolen.

Although the opinions of all parties are different, it is an indisputable fact that the consumption of traffic is accelerating. Everyone feels the same, including the operators’ staff, and there are data to support it.

According to the economic operation of China’s communications industry in September 2015 announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the per capita mobile Internet access traffic in September exceeded 350.5MB, up 88.0% year-on-year and 2.8% quarter-on-quarter. In that month, the total traffic of mobile Internet access reached 390 million GB, a record high, and reached 2.79 billion GB in the first nine months, up 99.4% year-on-year. Among them, the mobile Internet traffic accumulated to 2.50 billion GB in the first nine months, accounting for 89.7% of the total mobile Internet traffic, and doubled for nine consecutive months.

Therefore, recently, people feel that traffic is running fast because it is really running fast, because the network speed is fast, the network coverage is good, and the terminal also supports it. This kind of speed is the inevitable result, and it will bring about the improvement of Internet service, the website is more gorgeous but consumes more traffic, and users use more content but more money.

First, the coverage of 4G networks is getting better and better, and more people can use fast networks in more places. If the channel is cleared, whoever flows will naturally flow faster. Don’t worry about what you have only used for so long and used so many things. After the high-speed rail is connected, many people can go back and forth to their hometown several times a year, and the ticket money will naturally be more, but you can’t blame the high-speed rail for being bad, but the services you enjoy are also increasing and getting better. In the past, one page was opened in one minute, but now it has become four, and the traffic naturally increases.

The 4G coverage of the three operators is greatly improved, and the network speed is accelerating, even beginning to spread all over urban and rural areas, and 4G+ has been rolled out nationwide. According to media reports, Guangdong Mobile focused on strengthening the optimization of 4G network in urban villages. By the end of June 2015, it had completed the deep coverage of nearly 90 urban villages in Guangzhou, and the average daily traffic of 4G in urban villages increased by nearly 50%. At the same time, the network speed is also improving. It is learned from Guangdong Mobile that by applying the "enhanced version" of new 4G technologies such as carrier aggregation, the 4G network in major urban areas and township hotspots in the province has been upgraded to more than 10,000 base stations, with the highest rate of 220Mbps, and the rate in some experimental areas in Guangzhou and Shenzhen can even exceed 300Mbps. Now, among 4G mobile phones, Huawei P8, Mate7, Samsung S6 and other models and new models to be launched by major brands mostly support dual-carrier aggregation aggregation, and Xiaomi note Top Edition, LeTV Mobile Music 1pro and Le max support three carrier aggregation. With the terminal fully supporting 4G+, the traffic consumption of these mobile phone users will be faster.

It should be said that this explosive growth of traffic is the expected result of operators’ traffic management, and only the rapid growth of traffic can promote the rapid development of the entire Internet industry, and can also bring operators enough operating income, thus promoting better network construction and technology upgrading.

The rapid increase of network speed brings content blowout, which makes users uncomfortable and unconsciously consumed.

From EDGE, people gradually began to learn to surf the Internet with mobile phones. In the 3G era, many people complained that the Internet speed of China Mobile was too slow. At that time, no one said that traffic consumption was too fast, because it took several minutes to send a photo, and it was impossible to consume much traffic. In the era of 4G, the network speed of China Mobile has soared, which makes many people who are used to snail speed very uncomfortable, and also causes the old users of China Mobile to complain about traffic consumption frequently after using 4G recently.

In contrast, the users of China Unicom and China Telecom now complain less about the increase in traffic consumption caused by the fast network speed, mainly because the network speed of China Telecom and China Unicom has not increased much so far, and the users feel less. It can be said that when the caravan used to the ancient tea-horse road suddenly changed into the high-speed railway, it must be surprised and suspicious, and it was deeply uncomfortable. However, passengers who were more and more used to the 200-kilometer bullet train changed into the 300-kilometer-per-hour high-speed railway, although they felt fast, they would not be uncomfortable. Many old 2G users of China Mobile have now achieved a speed increase from 0 to 1, while some 3G users of China Telecom and China Unicom only have a speed increase from 0.5 to 1. Everyone’s feelings are different.

More importantly, with more people using the high-speed 4G network, a brand-new era has arrived, traffic is beginning to repeat the story of voice, and the spring of traffic management is coming with the complaints of users, and operators will usher in the second golden age of development.

At the same time, if the traffic really runs fast, it will also give operators the space and possibility to lower their tariffs more quickly. Speed and price are both contradictory and mutually promoting. With the rapid growth of traffic, operators will lower their unit prices faster. Moreover, with the general increase of national traffic and technological progress, Internet applications will become more and more abundant, and the unit prices will be lower, and most people will enjoy the happiness of growth.

Passive consumption and loss of control in the circle are the real reasons why users feel that traffic is "stolen"

Nowadays, a large number of users think that traffic consumption is particularly fast, and it is difficult for them to believe that traffic consumption is fast under their own multiple controls, so they have to point the finger at operators. Newton couldn’t explain the source of gravity, but also let God be the master for once.

The high-speed loss of traffic, users and operators are not at fault, but the times have changed. In addition to the increase in network speed and rich applications, the increase in traffic from friends will also make your traffic "consumed", and this increase in traffic will make users lose control.

Users feel that the traffic consumption is too fast because they have lost control of the traffic. It is not that operators are cheating, but that users are forced to increase the social traffic that they can’t control.

When you send a big picture or video, you can choose to be in the WIFI environment. Conversely, when you watch a big picture or video sent by others in the WIFI environment, you may be in a network environment without WIFI. When you open it, the traffic is consumed unconsciously, and the use of this traffic is not easy to be detected.

Many people use WIFI to broadcast live, but many people can only watch it on the road or on the 4G network, because it is often overdue. This kind of traffic is forced, but it is not forced by operators. It is forced to use based on content or social interaction. The increase of real-time content is also one of the main reasons for the increase of traffic but out of control.

Many people are used to using taxi software, and they also use Alipay and WeChat to pay anytime and anywhere. Such payment is to link the network, and such traffic consumption is also that users can’t actively choose the network to control, and traffic consumption is also increasing. There is more and more social traffic, just as we talked on the phone more than ten years ago, even Alipay has launched social functions, and WeChat has WeChat campaigns and WeChat reading.

Different from the voice era, we have been locked in the circle in the use of traffic. In the voice era, users pay for making phone calls, while receiving phone calls is generally free, sending text messages is paid, and receiving text messages is free. Users and consumers are active and can control the duration or mode by themselves. In the era of traffic, active senders can choose different networks and scenarios, which can often be free and active, while receivers have to passively use traffic in different scenarios, which is often pulled, and it is difficult to control and choose free networks. At this time, traffic consumption makes users very uncomfortable, and even suspects that traffic has been stolen. It can be said that most of the traffic is not stolen by operators on purpose, but by the enthusiasm and wonderful content of friends.

In the past, most of the software only allowed users to connect with the software server. When the unit price of traffic continued to decline, the rapid growth of traffic brought ideal benefits to operators, and the traffic increment of operators did not increase, which completely deviated from the communication operation law in the voice era. Nowadays, there are more and more mesh connections between users. Although the value of traffic is hardly exponential, it has greatly surpassed the linear increase, and the future value of traffic has infinitely approached the golden age of voice.

Therefore, we can say that most users feel that traffic runs fast, which is the result of fast network speed, rich applications, good terminals and mutual traction between user circles. This is the future of traffic management that operators dream of, and it is also a new scene that Internet companies are eagerly awaiting. A new and brand-new Internet era is coming. We will all benefit!