Posts Tagged ‘3G capacity’
Wireless blog: Mobile broadband services generate huge traffic for 3UK
Mark Heath of Unwired Insight provides analysis of 3UK’s 3G traffic.
While many mobile network operators remain tight-lipped about the growth in data traffic on their 3G networks, 3UK has been relatively open about it. It has also been open about the traffic shaping that it has had to apply. This is despite 3UK having a significantly smaller customer base of mobile customers than other UK operators, as well as possessing a greater allocation of W-CDMA spectrum than most UK operators.
3UK has been heavily promoting mobile broadband services for several years now, having seen the opportunity to benefit from its underutilised 3G network. By offering highly affordable mobile broadband tariffs (for example, 15GB per month for only GBP15), 3UK has maintained market share leadership in mobile broadband USB dongle services. In October 2010, 3UK claimed to have the largest share of the UK mobile broadband market – at about 35%.
Mobile broadband services are extremely usage-intensive compared with other mobile services such as voice and text messaging, so they have had a significant effect on 3UK’s network. Data traffic first exceeded voice traffic in 3UK’s network in 2007. By October 2009, data already accounted for 94% of all traffic across it network. Soon after, 3UK announced that it would apply traffic shaping on its network, limiting peer-to-peer traffic and reducing video streaming data rates in congested areas.
By early 2010, data accounted for about 97% of 3UK’s total traffic, with dongles generating about 30 times the level of voice traffic.
We predict that data will account for 99% of total traffic from 3G devices by the end of 2014 across developed markets.
At the end of October 2010, 3UK announced that its network had carried about 2,500 terrabytes of data during June 2010. With an estimated 1.6 million dongle users generating the vast majority of this traffic (about 2,300 terrabytes), this equates to approximately 1.5GB of data per month per dongle user. These are big numbers, demonstrating the major challenges that many mobile network operators will face over the next few years, particularly those with significantly larger customer bases than 3UK.
About the author:
Dr Mark Heath is co-founder of telecom strategy and telecommunication consultancy company Unwired Insight. He provides regular in-depth analysis onLTE and 4G, and has co-authored over 40 research reports on the biggest issues in the telecom industry.
Wireless blog: iPhone and Blackberry smartphones increase pressure on 3G networks
Alastair Brydon of Unwired Insight discusses the latest smartphone sales figures.
Recent announcements by major handset manufacturers show that the appetite for smartphones continues to grow strongly. On Tuesday, Apple announced that it had sold 14.1 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2010, which was 91% higher than the same period in 2009. It took 18 months to sell this many iPhones when it was first launched in 2007. On Thursday, Nokia revealed that it sold 26.5 million smartphones in the third quarter, up by 61% from the previous year. Last month RIM announced that it had sold 12.1 million Blackberrys in the three months to 28 August 2010.
We already know that the number of broadband dongles and data cards is also increasing rapidly, with the European Commission reporting that they almost doubled in number during 2009, to 5.2% penetration of the European Union population by January 2010.
While the strong growth in the uptake of smartphones and dongles is good news for their manufacturers, it’s a mixed blessing for mobile network operators. In principle they create a raft of new opportunities for revenue creation, but it may not be easy for operators to take advantage of these. Over the last ten years, as the services on offer to mobile customers have become increasingly sophisticated, mobile operator ARPU has remained stubbornly flat. However, as more of these devices enter the market and their broadband services are used increasingly heavily, the operators will face the challenge of coping with a rapid increase and a changing mix of traffic carried by their networks.
By 2014, broadband devices will generate over 98% of all traffic on cellular networks in developed markets, as illustrated in the chart below (taken from our report on Will 3G Networks Cope?). The investment in network expansion needed to keep ahead of these changes may mean that mobile network operators will be running much harder simply to stand still.
About the author:
Dr Alastair Brydon has produced more than 40 reports on wireless telecommunications. He is co-founder of Unwired Insight.
3G offloading essential to protect 3G capacity
Mark Heath of Unwired Insight discusses how 3G offloading will be needed to protect 3G capacity as 3G traffic levels continue to rise.
With widespread deployment of LTE networks many years away, and with wireless traffic volumes continuing to increase, 3G offloading is becoming a necessity for mobile operators, to protect 3G capacity. Dedicated broadcasting networks, indoor systems and sideloading can each reduce the volume of traffic carried on a 3G macrocell network. According to Unwired Insight, these complementary distribution channels will account for up to 42.7% of total service traffic by 2014.
For users with fixed broadband connections, multimedia services can be better delivered using either WiFi offloading or femtocells. These can provide more reliable and better-quality services than those delivered by 3G macrocells. While WiFi accounts for virtually all offloaded traffic to indoor systems currently, femtocells will account for an increasing proportion, with analysts forecasting about one million femtocells being shipped in 2010.
About the author:
Mark Heath is co-founder of telecom strategy and telecommunication consultancy company Unwired Insight. He provides regular in-depth analysis on LTE and 4G, and has co-authored over 40 research reports on the biggest issues in the telecom industry.
