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By
Tim Young
2011 is upon us, and boy, oh boy, do wireless service providers have their work cut out for them.
Over the past few years, mobile providers have gone from providing mobile telephony to providing a mobile lifestyle, allowing consumers to remain connected, regardless of their physical location. With consumers untethered in this way, the concept of the home or office is simultaneously sprung from the brick-and-mortar impediments that limited their movement in the past, enabling that home or office to exist anywhere a wireless user can find the bars to support the very communications activities they would have needed a dedicated location to undertake just a few short years ago.
“Users now expect connectivity on multiple devices in any location as a way of life,” says Josh Morton, VP of IT operations at Sprint. “They are also looking for their “personality” (profile, settings, favorites, etc.) and data to be available from multiple devices.” In short, users seem to be looking for a pervasive user experience that moves in tandem with their lifestyles.
It’s Significant.
However, the growing complexity of these devices poses a unique set of challenges to service providers, just as it enables a unique set of opportunities for providers and consumers, alike.
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Josh Morton, Sprint: “Users now expect connectivity on multiple devices in any location as a way of life.” |
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many are interested in how that move
would impact AT&T, from a competitive
perspective. However, it is not even
fully clear how the move would impact
Verizon.
Still, Kaufman Brothers tech analyst Shaw Wu reports that Verizon “views iPhone as essential to its future success, despite it already carrying a full roster of competing operating systems,” with Android the most notable of the bunch, and Windows 7 conspicuous in its absence.
However, those Windows phones will hit Verizon and Sprint this month, most sources indicate. In addition, HP’s Palm division looks to roll out a webOS-based tablet in March. HTC, meanwhile, is hard at work on LTE devices, which it plans to debut this year.
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A Look at Device Growth:
The past few years have been a case study in how user behavior shifts in response to the changes in available mobile technology and subsequent technology adjusts to meet user behavior. It’s a cycle, really—the wireless Ouroboros.
Data services are clearly the massive driver here. As wireless voice ARPU dips, wireless data ARPU surges to cover the gap. And that surge is precisely the problem. While end-users once satisfied with basic handsets move to much more complex smartphones, and their behavior shifts towards increased bandwidth usage, the service providers are left holding the bag on how to deal with the ensuing bandwidth crunch.
(In fact, for more around this, you might be interested in a recent Pipeline KnowledgeCast webinar on the network implications of the mobile culture. You can view the webinar here
)
The iPhone is the oft-cited culprit here,
and as the device moves to more
carriers, its impact on bandwidth
capacity needs will become ever more
pressing. With Verizon the next US
carrier likely to take on the iPhone,
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Carrier Response:
These 4G devices are the tip of the spear for the accelerated network activity we will see this year.
“T-Mobile has been rapidly expanding its 4G HSPA+ network, which is now available in more than 80 major metropolitan areas,” says Danielle Hopcus, a spokesperson for the company. “T-Mobile expects to reach 100 major metropolitan areas and 200 million people in 2010. We also plan to upgrade our network to offer 42Mbps theoretical speeds in 2011.” Speeds like that could signal the end for WiMAX, and T-Mobile plans to do it with no additional nationwide spectrum allocation.
And these new devices and the user expectations that accompany them can have a direct effect on network planning efforts. “The design and management of the network has changed primarily in terms of capacity planning,” says Sprint’s Morton. “With the multiple connectivity options we now offer, our customers are using the network for much more than just voice traffic so capacity is being designed to accommodate the increased data traffic Sprint now offers.”
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