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The market drivers for 4G systems are closely related to ongoing demands for mobile content and applications requiring faster, seamless data transmission capabilities. Data-centric services have been undeniably important for mobile operators’ revenue generation. Over the years, as wireless postpaid subscriber growth continued to slow down in developed markets like the U.S. and Europe, mobile data services became a key revenue generator for many wireless carriers and a critical factor to help offset their declining voice ARPU. New services such as PC data cards, email, mobile web, and social networking are starting to gain significant traction in many regions of the world. While traffic over mobile broadband networks has increased, most countries will experience a lack of network performance ability for delivering mass volumes of applications in the near future. As shown in the figure below, only five countries (the UK, U.S., Sweden, Korea, and Japan) can reach over 1 Mbps of data transmission over their existing 3G cellular networks. In the 4G era (and even in the 3.5G world in more developed regions), demand for enhanced mobile data services and applications such as UGC, location-aware mobile applications, music services, mobile payment services, ad-funded/supported mobile apps, and wireless VoIP services will continue to gain in popularity. As a result, mobile operators need to deploy upscale networks with greater capacity but lower costs per bit. At the end of the day, 4G services will deliver more advanced versions of the same improvements promised by 3G, such as enhanced multimedia, smooth streaming video (TV mobile, video telephony, video-on-demand), mobile gaming, e-books, M2M apps (e.g. smart grids), and mobile UGC services/apps. Mobile payment/banking solutions (e.g. mobile wallet applications enabled through WAP-based solutions like Obopay's or NFC’s technology) are also likely to become a popular 4G service. These 4G app/services can be delivered through mobile app stores embedded with enhanced peer-to-poor recommendation and LBS capabilities. 4G services will be available seamlessly across various wireless technologies (LTE, Wi-Fi, UWB, Broadband Services and Applications in the 4G Era WiMAX, etc.), and device types (cell phones, laptops, digital cameras, printers, tablet PCs, etc.) with the same QoS anytime, anywhere. Software defined radios will play a key role. Most analysts predict that by 2013 there will be as many as 350 million consumer electronics devices sold in the U.S. with embedded 3G or 4G wireless chips. Ultimately, 4G users will be able to enjoy a richer, real-time multimedia experience. For more information on 4G applications and services, please refer to our report “Broadband Services and Applications in the 4G Era Beyond Existing 3G Applications” available here. Enjoy! Adlane Fellah For more information, contact the author at afellah@maravedis-bwa.com |
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