Mobile video optimization vendor Vantrix Corp. has teamed up with infrastructure powerhouse Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC) to help wireless operators optimize mobile video traffic.

As part of the relationship, which gives the specialist a powerful ally in the growing mobile video quality management market, Vantrix will bundle its Bandwidth Optimizer product with Ericsson's Multiservice Proxy mobile broadband traffic optimization platform.

According to Vantrix, its real-time bandwidth optimization techniques (bitrate throttling, adaptive streaming, transcoding and transrating, and caching), which enable operators to monitor network congestion and adapt video attributes and network conditions accordingly, can lead to network capex and opex savings of up to 70 percent.

The company already has more than 70 network operator customers, including Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), Telia Company and Etisalat , but teaming with Ericsson will give it access to the Swedish giant's 140 Tier 1 operator customers across the globe.

And the two companies have already been working on new business together, with at least 15 joint trials underway, according to Vantrix.

"[Ericsson is] one of the only vendors out there that is a leader in delivering radio access network, backhaul and core equipment, which takes a different meaning when delivering video," says Vantrix CMO Patrick Lopez. "It's only as good as the value chain. You need a partner that can orchestrate really well to have a good user experience," he adds, baton in hand.

Why this matters
Ericsson expects global mobile broadband subscriptions to double this year to 1 billion and for video to represent a significant portion of the overall mobile data traffic, so it needed a video component to add to its traffic management offering, with Vantrix its chosen partner.

Considering that there is no shortage of approaches to mobile video optimization -- compression, transcoding, caching, Wi-Fi offload, place-shifting, time-shifting and so on -- having Ericsson as a partner is a significant validation of Vantrix's capabilities.

Mobile operators will likely end up employing a variety of techniques to battle the data deluge, but this relationship gives Vantrix, which faces tough competition from the likes of Bytemobile Inc. and Openwave Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: OPWV), a much greater chance of landing a healthy chunk of a market that will only get bigger.

For more
For more on mobile video optimization approaches, check out our past coverage below.

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Reporter, Light Reading Mobile