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Following up with my impressions from the WIMAX Forum conference in Amsterdam last week, one of the key issues discussed in various sessions was the change in behavior from consumers using mobile broadband. The more bandwidth users are given, the more it is used in a mobile environment. Operators such as Scartel are reporting an average usage range of 5-10Gbps per month. They shared an anecdote about an actual Yota subscriber who reported to 2000 movies through their WIMAX connection – resulting in 1.5 tera bytes of excess usage! In fact, 5-10% of users are responsible of 80% of the traffic generated on Scartel’s network. The trend is inevitably towards more bandwidth consumption, and this is where spectrum can be a maker or breaker of the business case. In fact it has been reported that 3G operators in Korea and Europe are looking at ways to offload some of the traffic from very heavy data users onto alternative and cheaper networks such as WIFi, WiMAX or femtocells. This trend will only accelerate as iPhone and other similar participants proliferate and contribute to saturate both the access and the backhaul systems. Knowing that 3G operators typically have (5X2) +5 MHz spectrum and that 2.6GHz spectrum availability in some European countries may de delayed to 2011, this creates an opportunity for better use of the 3.5 GHz spectrum already available. So if LTE is delayed too much longer, the pressure coming from network users may force operators to become more flexible regarding possible the use of WIMAX. Vertical applications seem also to be gaining maturity, although no utility or railway company was present at the event. At least the general consensus that WiMAX can get the job done is growing. Despite the fact the WIMAX Forum does not seem to view this aspect of the industry as a priority, several vendors such as Alvarion and Alcatel-Lucent are seeing new business coming from these markets. Enjoy! For more information, contact the author at afellah@maravedis-bwa.com |
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