Oracle has announced the release of Oracle Communications Policy Controller, which which the company claims will provide advanced network control capabilities to help CSPs - communications service providers - better manage the explosion in network data usage.

CSPs can optimise data usage and ensure a fair allocation of network resources by expanding or contracting bandwidth as appropriate based on customer subscriptions and service aware policies. Oracle Communications Policy Controller's features will include network usage-sensitive pricings and data plans offered in units that are meaningful to customers, such as hours of streaming music or number of movies downloaded. Oracle promises a “comprehensive, integrated and flexible policy management product”, emphasising the contrast with competing services which require extensive bandwidth to operate properly.

Global IP traffic reached 3GB per capita in 2010, a rise of 1GB since 2009, fuelled by the rapid adoption of network-enabled devices, including smartphones. Cisco has forecast that worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold by 2015, in excess of the figures provided by an Ericsson report yesterday. Highlights from the Cisco VNI Forecast are available here.