Telefónica and Meta boost short video experience and network efficiency

Telefónica and Meta announce that they have started working jointly to optimize video traffic delivery on Telefonica´s network and deliver mobile network efficiencies.

Meta has been investing in video engineering for years, seeking to continuously optimize resources, while simultaneously enhancing user experience. With changing usage patterns and the demand for short form video content such as Reels, there has been an increasing interest to understand how high-quality video experiences can be delivered at scale without jeopardizing user experience.

Telefonica, committed to building a future-proof, reliable, resilient, and secure network, devotes substantial investments to ensure it is flexible, efficient, and sustainable. These investments cater for traffic growth on Telefonica’s network that has increased fivefold over the past decade.

Telefonica and Meta, through collaborative testing and aligning on key performance parameters, conducted several experiments over 4G and 5G Movistar networks in Spain to understand and meet the challenges of short form video delivery over mobile networks. The tested configuration significantly reduced video traffic in real network conditions while maintaining the user experience, resulting in the decision to expand this technology to other relevant Telefonica markets. These results motivate Telefonica and Meta to continue implementing industry best practices in terms of efficiency.

Telefonica and Meta are also exploring other potential approaches like the exposure of network status information through standard based APIs such as those defined in IETF (sconepro) or within the Open Gateway initiative in CAMARA that can result in closer coordination between both networks. Both companies will continue to collaborate closely to drive innovation in this space, including the adoption of the latest and most efficient video codecs and the development of standards that improve coordination between applications and networks.

We are pleased to partner once more with Meta to understand and optimize the way short form video content is delivered to customers over mobile networks increasing network efficiency”, said Enrique Blanco, Telefonica Group CTIO. “By combining our expertise in network optimization with Meta’s innovative content delivery technologies, we are confident that we are taking one of the necessary steps in the journey to secure network sustainability by providing a consistent quality of experience for our users while optimizing network resources. Both parties are committed to seeing continued progress.

We are committed to continuing our collaboration with innovative partners like Telefonica, device manufacturers, equipment vendors and the wider ecosystem, to push the boundaries of video optimization. This includes some of the optimization tested with Telefonica, as well as working together in IETF to explore use cases that enable information exchange between CSP and Meta to further unlock video efficiencies

, said Gaya Nagarajan, Vice-President of Network Engineering at Meta. “We consider this collaboration a great start for a long-term wider partnership and an opportunity to drive innovation and shape a more sustainable future for the internet. “