users, by ensuring that heavy users of bandwidth do not disproportionately affect shared network resources and where they do, that there is an opportunity to recover some of the associated costs.  The implementation of fair usage policies enables service providers to deliver a more equitable service to subscribers and make sustainable returns from their investments in network capacity.

The second is to look at how the plans themselves are structured and tier services accordingly.  By offering flexible data access plans, that dynamically allocate network demand among multiple service tiers, operators can intelligently manage network growth, more effectively meet subscriber needs and better match revenues with network utilization.  This approach is a combination of plan structure and technology designed to manage the plans for optimal service and performance, allowing operators to succeed in aligning user behavior with the costs of this behavior.

Both of these approaches enable service providers to enable intelligent, sophisticated management and allocation of network resources based on subscriber plans.  Additionally, both approaches allow service providers to do more with less, making existing bandwidth more efficient.

How can I map future bandwidth demand?

As devices, apps, content and services become more sophisticated, bandwidth needs to expand exponentially to meet subscribers expected quality of experience.  The challenges of next-generation networks include lengthy development cycles, complex rollout and constant innovation that bring associated CAPEX.

Enabling effective and profitable rollouts means first having a clear understanding of the applications being considered, how subscribers are expected to use them and the expected associated bandwidth needs.