Editor’s Note: With 2014 now upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from leading industry analysts and executives on what they expect to see in the new year.
With mobile data use once again continuing on an upswing, averaging more than 60% annual growth, I predict that we are going to see mobile network operators worldwide looking even deeper into how to handle this massive mobile data crunch as we head into 2014. While each region faces its own challenges in meeting consumers’ thirst for mobile data consumption, managing network capacity and the subscriber experience will remain top of mind for operators.
While Asia-Pacific countries like Japan and South Korea are leading the way in advanced LTE networks, maintaining network speeds and reducing latency will be critical for them to continue to stay ahead of their competition. In the United States, recent news regarding delays for wireless spectrum auctions, coupled with the existing spectrum crunch and the deployment of LTE networks are making it absolutely necessary for operators to find ways to make the most of the spectrum available. The European Union’s proposal to ban mobile data roaming could also heavily impact the amount of data traveling across networks in Europe. In Latin America, mobile operators are looking for options to manage the influx of data, while they continue to build out their LTE infrastructure. This is especially critical considering a large amount of data traffic, both foreign and domestic, will be hitting Brazil’s networks this upcoming year for the World Cup and in 2016 for the Olympics.
Operators need solutions now in order to remain competitive in the marketplace and obtain their overall return on investment from both capital expenditures and operating expenditures standpoints. Because of these challenges, I predict that operators worldwide are going to start exploring vehicles for intelligently optimizing and managing the flow of data across their networks in real-time. Not only will gaining additional capacity allow them to handle the existing data crunch, it will also enable operators to pursue new revenue opportunities, by oversubscribing the available bandwidth and expanding into new markets without having to first spend the additional opex and capex for marginal network growth.
I also expect that reducing the need to invest in additional network infrastructure, as well as reducing backhaul, spectrum and transport costs will also be top of mind for these operators.
Already we are seeing operators in Latin America working toward harnessing the mobile data crunch by applying solutions such as end-to-end byte-level caching to reduce the traffic on their networks. I believe that you will see an increasing number of operators applying these types of solutions to their own networks, integrating them not only on devices, but also at the radio network backhaul and the network core. This holistic approach is what is going to be necessary for them to efficiently make the most of what they’ve got, while achieving significant savings in terms of reoccurring operating costs and capital investments.
Vaughan Emery is the founder and CEO. He works closely with technology partners to deliver the company’s mobile solutions to its customers. Throughout his career, Emery has developed key business relationships with mobile operators, phone manufacturers and technology partners within the United States, Asia and Europe. Previously, he founded a mobile security technology company, which developed an advanced malware security solution for mobile phones and embedded devices. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in commercial product development, technology services and business development.
