Telecom Lead America: While the level of data delivered to mobile devices is expected to continue to expand
dramatically over the next five years, service providers will offload nearly 60
percent of traffic in that period, says a recent report from Juniper Research.
Small cells will account for a steadily increasing proportion of offloaded data over
the forecast period, reaching over 12 percent by 2016. North America and
Western Europe will account for over 75 percent of global mobile data offloaded
throughout the five years.
The report, Mobile Data Offload & Onload: WiFi & Small Cell Strategies
2012-2016″ further states that service providers are increasingly seeking to
reduce the strain on their network caused by the proliferation of connected
smart devices by deploying their own WiFi hotspot networks and offering small cell
solutions to end-users.
While small cells were developed primarily to enhance network coverage, service
providers are increasingly offering them as an offload solution and integrating
them with WiFi technology within a single unit.
The deployment of integrated cells offers further potential benefits to network
operators beyond coverage improvement and congestion relief.
With WiFi integrated small cells, seamless data services can be extended to
non-cellular devices as well, such as cameras and WiFi-only tablets, offering
operators the opportunity to develop new revenue streams,” said report author
Nitin Bhas.
As major public events would result in significant spikes” in mobile data usage
in those areas, service providers will have to add substantial extra capacity
on an ad hoc basis. As an example, the high-density WiFi networks being
deployed at sporting venues and tube stations for the London 2012 Olympics is a
critical pre-emptive measure to alleviate potential problems.
Public access small cells provide better coverage than
macrocells: Small Cell Forum
Recently Small Cell Forum predicted that public access small cells could play a key role
in providing additional mobile coverage, capacity and new services in both
urban and rural areas.
Even with conservative public deployments, small cells could offload the majority of
subscribers in many areas thereby drastically reducing network load and improving
the user experience, the report said.
According to ABI Research, the public access market is likely to represent 64
percent of small cell market revenues despite comprising only 6 percent of
shipments by 2016.
editor@telecomlead.com
