Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding iPhones straining AT&T Inc.’s wireless network, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While the iPhone is a powerful little device, in the big picture it shows only what can happen to 3G mobile broadband networks when just a fraction of Internet traffic migrates over to them.
Consider Internet-ready netbooks, data cards and wireless dongles: the wireless threat is vastly multiplied with these offerings. These devices literally have the potential to shift entire broadband Internet traffic consumption patterns to mobile networks. From large peer-to-peer (P2P) file transfers to Internet video to streaming audio, all are potential traffic types that can be migrated to mobile broadband networks quickly and easily – with devastating effects if not managed appropriately by the operator.
The wireless 3G network, as it stands now, is just simply not ready to handle the coming rush of usage. And as bandwidth congestion causes quality to suffer, users will churn.
The solution is cell-splitting and adding more cell sites to create more aggregate bandwidth. This is easier said than done, though, given the fact that wireless data pricing plans are still mostly flat-rate rather than metered. In fact, the current decoupling between skyrocketing traffic growth and horizontal revenue streams is the single biggest challenge that wireless network operators face today.
Carriers must drive down the price per bit in their networks in order to survive financially and keep customers from churning to a competitive provider. What’s more, operators can employ DPI to offer tiered service levels and charge subscribers accordingly – higher fees for higher consumption levels or for guaranteed throughput.
Operators need to look at ways for effectively monetizing the limited bandwidth on their networks. From a revenue standpoint, operators have had a single-focus mindset: how to charge more and more from the subscriber. This needs to change, however, and operators need to start thinking about how to charge from content providers – the other end of the traffic supply chain.
Simply put, wireless service providers need to tear a page from the airline industry playbook which calls for different tariffs for different classes of service (e.g., first class, business and coach). As with air travel, every one data packet on the wireless network gets transported from source to destination – the only thing that changes is how much of the pipe is allocated to certain traffic flows based on willingness to pay for certain classes of service.
For the full, in-depth story at our sister publication, xchange, please click here or on the source link below.
Manish Singh is vice president of product line management at Continuous Computing.
