VoIP and SMS are fast growing but still a tiny part of world’s mobile data traffic

Mobile data traffic grew 77 percent over the past year, according to a GigaOM report published by Reuters. That growth rate far out-stripped the growth rate of fixed networks, according to the report, which cited research conducted by Allot Communications and based on information the network management vendor collected from mobile networks representing more than 250 million customers around the world.

Not surprisingly, video–especially YouTube’s–were consuming the lion’s share of mobile bandwidth. YouTube videos alone accounted for more than one-fifth of all bandwidth consumed. All told, video watching eats up about 39 percent of mobile bandwidth.

SMS and VoIP grew even faster than video–more than doubling in the first half of 2011, but still only accounts for about four percent of total bandwidth usage.

Rounding out mobile bandwidth usage was P2P file sharing (29 percent) and web-browsing (25 percent).