Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News asked wireless industry analysts and executives to provide their predictions for what they expect to see in 2012 across their areas of expertise.
Revenue for wireless voice and data has flattened. Carrier revenue will be generated ever-increasingly in two ways: by extended LTE, Ethernet and small-cell networks that capture as many users as possible; and through reduced operations costs. This streamlining of operations costs will be pushed down the wireless infrastructure industry ecosystem to companies which build the networks: manufacturers, AC&E firms, and installation companies. These companies will need to do more within tighter timelines and with fewer resources.
Unencumbered communications between the field and back office will be one key means to improve operations management. Mobile tools and machine-to-machine capabilities will increasingly be employed by wireless infrastructure companies to automate the currently document-based processes they use to build networks. Mobile work flow software systems brought to personnel on smartphones, tablets and laptops will expedite effective management of field technicians, dictate accurate asset tracking, and ensure proper-ongoing capture and reporting of operations data.
Business intelligence currently buried in inaccessible documents or siloed IT systems will now be shared across databases based on pre-defined business rules. Mobile workforce, document and asset management systems that automate field-to-back office data exchanges and which share data automatically across all company back office systems will ever increasingly become the norm for wireless operations IT. Now, at an ever-increasing rate, wireless infrastructure companies will achieve on-going growth using the very mobility tools they enable.
