Making the Case for Reliable Wireless Broadband in the Metro

By Ronny Haraldsvik, SVP/CMO, BelAir Networks

It may not be a surprise that unreliable experiences are preventing subscribers from using video applications and accessing online commerce sites. But that this may be holding back billions in revenue, is news.

A recent survey we did with TNS Research shows that 44% of mobile subscribers find the metropolitan mobile broadband experience inadequate when they leave the home or office; a figure that rises to 57% for smartphone users. This number is higher in United Kingdom where 64% experience access issues.

Mobile video services and application revenues are already seeing the impact: A lack of reliable mobile broadband networks is already putting off 64% of subscribers from using mobile video services – this figure rises to 71% for smartphone users.

This may of course impact the potential for higher customer churn. When asked who they believe is responsible for resolving problems with mobile Internet service, 77% of people first turn to the mobile network provider. No big surprise there. However, close to 12% held the handset manufacturer responsible.

If mobile network providers were to charge for reliable coverage, both smartphone users and average subscribers would pay $7-8 dollars per month, on top of existing monthly service plans, with the age 16-24 demographic willing to pay up to $10. This constitutes tens of billions of dollars in potential additional annual revenue, which suggests that return on investments of additional wireless network deployments in metropolitan areas would pay back in months.

The opportunities are many. The opportunity cost of doing nothing can amount to $ billions.

Scalable service provider Wi-Fi and multi-access small cell networks have a role to play as Wireless as a Service becomes a reality later this year.

Service providers seeking additional revenue or business models, now more than ever, have the opportunity to bundle or evolve existing services to target managed services for SMB, education and hospitality markets. New business models include:

• Managed Services for small and medium businesses, retail shops, malls and building owners using Wi-Fi or multimode small cells (Wi-Fi, 3G/Wi-Fi) for indoor, outdoor and campus coverage for their own business and customer.
• Managed Services for businesses that offer private or public wireless access for their customers, vendors and partners
• Ad-location and per-sub pricing models emerge as an option
• Hosted Services where small cell networks enable shared access across business users and roaming service provider subscribers with integration to the service provider customers’ own core networks for billing/authentication
• MVNO shared access small cell networks with secure integration to the customers’ core networks for billing/authentication or to the carrier’s core for fully managed/hosted MVNO services
• Co-location Services enabling multiple operators to share common network infrastructure

At this year’s Mobile world Congress, taking place February 27 – March 1, BelAir Networks will showcase the benefits of highly scalable and integrated Service Provider Wi-Fi, mobile offload and new business model examples.

See you in Barcelona.

Reprinted from the BelAir Networks blog.

WCAI Applauds Congress for Passing Incentive Spectrum Auction Legislation

WCAI applauds Congress for passing legislation to make more wireless spectrum available. This legislation will cement our global leadership in mobile broadband communications, create thousands of jobs, and give public safety the network it needs when our first responders stand in harm’s way. It is also a testament to the enduring ability of our nation's leaders in Congress to come together when our nation's most critical issues are at stake.

New Study Shows Every 10% Increase in 4G Adoption Creates 231,000 Jobs

Today leading economists Rob Shapiro and Kevin Hassett released a study analyzing the impact of the adoption of 4G mobile technologies on the U.S. economy. (The study is available in pdf here.) A comparison of wireless technology penetration rates to state-by-state employment data shows that the transition from 3G to 4G mobile technologies should create more than 231,000 jobs for every 10 percentage point gain in adoption rates within a year. This means that a 40 percent gain in 4G adoption would produce nearly 1 million new jobs. These results provide powerful evidence that our national job creation strategy should seek to accelerate the deployment of 4G infrastructure.

The study also demonstrates the critical role 4G mobile technologies will play in achieving other national goals related to health care, energy, e-commerce, and cloud-based innovation. The shift to 4G would:

• Accelerate mobile e-commerce, which grew from about $1.4 billion in 2009 to between $6 billion and $9 billion in 2011;
• Enhance savings from the wide use of electronic medical records created and accessed wirelessly, along with other “mHealth” applications;
• Save $10 billion by further reducing power outages in the nation’s electricity networks; and
• Enable the market for cloud-based services to reach $39 billion by 2016.

Mobile service providers are already investing billions of dollars to deploy 4G infrastructure. But they can’t achieve these goals on their own. Congress and the FCC must make available more spectrum for the United States to sustain its mobile advantage. Today’s evidence shows just how much the success of our economy depends on it.

To hear directly from the authors about the paper, come see them in person in Washington on Thursday, or participate in a live web video briefing/discussion later that afternoon. You can learn more about each presentation or RSVP here.

Bright Lights, Gig Cities -- BelAir Networks Big 4 Network Predictions for 2012

By Ronny Haraldsvik, CMO/SVP Marketing, BelAir Networks

There will be all kinds of wireless devices unwrapped over the coming holiday season. Whether that’s e-readers, tablets, laptops or smartphones, one thing is for sure: they will feed people’s insatiable appetite for mobile data. And that’s only going to continue as we move into 2012. What impact will this have on the mobile broadband industry?

Based on trends observed through BelAirBI Business Intelligence and data extrapolated from both internal and third party sources, we have compiled 4 Big Network Predictions for 2012. When combined, these predictions all point to the emergence of the Metro Gig Zone offering bright lights for mobile broadband, particularly in big cities where wireless networks are challenged by highly dense pockets of data usage:

1. Big Users and Big Content will Consume Bigger Capacity in Metropolitan areas: 10% of subscribers based in Metropolitan areas, using smartphones and laptops, will consume 90% of all 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi network capacity available. In addition, video-based access to information (CNN, SKYTV, ESPN) and content based over-the-top services (Netflix, Google YouTube), will account for over 90% of all metropolitan broadband access over 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi networks. Of this one-to-one and one-to-many video-based communications using Skype, Facebook and other social applications will soon account for 5%.
2. Big Business and Big New Vertical Markets will create Bigger Opportunities for Carriers: The rise of Wireless-as-a-Service (WaaS) for indoor-outdoor Wi-Fi and cellular services will see enterprise networking vendors and carriers go head-to-head in the market for wireless solutions for SMBs, stadiums and shopping malls. In addition, mobile and fixed carriers will also compete with Enterprise WLAN vendors and resellers in vertical markets such as education, hospitality and real estate high rises, with leased, fixed cost and subscriber-based revenue models. The removal of massive tower investments and time-consuming civil approvals for small cell networks supporting will also open the door for new entrants (previously non-service providers) to enter the metropolitan broadband access market.
3. Big Broadband Experiences will Become Bigger Differentiators for Consumer Facing Organizations: The quest for a better mobile broadband experience will impact user behavior with regard to metropolitan travel patterns. Routes, stopovers and destinations offering consistent and reliable mobile broadband service, irrespective of the wireless access technology will benefit from increased customer traffic. Shopping malls, large hotel chains, and large consumer brands will differentiate themselves by offering free or earned (i.e. points based) broadband access and day/weekend based promotions using GPS-enabled access points for serving up local ads and offers.
4. Big Networks will Become Bigger with Small Networks: There will be 100% growth in metropolitan mobile offload and Wi-Fi services data traffic. When a broadband network is deployed, traffic will double within 6 months. Wi-Fi follows the same daily traffic trending statistics as subscribers using LTE and 3G. Subsequently, mobile carriers worldwide will surpass 100 billion Wi-Fi connections from their subscribers by the end of 2012 by integrating Wi-Fi with their 3G and LTE network strategies. We will also see the first 100k small cell network deployment in the metropolitan area of a country using combinations of Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE. At the same time 100 mobile operators and Fixed Broadband Service Providers worldwide will have announced small cell trials or commercial deployments.

Reprinted from Life in the Small Cell: BelAir Networks Blog

Complete Convergence of Communications and Computing Platforms Is Here

Now that the term “convergence” has become passé, it’s finally happening. The distinctions between formerly separate communications networks and devices are blurring. Wired and wireless networks will soon be providing seamlessly integrated services; licensed and unlicensed spectrum are used by the same service provider; the same communications network can simultaneously serve residential, enterprise, and vertical markets; the PC and the TV are becoming indistinguishable; wireless phones are replacing wired phones; tablets are replacing TVs and phones alike; and the smartphone is replacing literally everything: With a smartphone, you no longer need a wired phone, a calendar, an address book, a notepad, a clock, a calculator, a camera, a map, a music player, a thermometer, a photo album, a desktop, a newsstand, books, a dictionary, a thesaurus, an encyclopedia set, a video player, board games, a compass, a remote control, a guitar tuner, a tape recorder, etc.

As platforms converge, the nature of the technology used to transmit communications will become increasingly irrelevant to the consumer. Whether video is delivered via over the air broadcast, traditional cable, satellite, IPTV, an over-the-top service accessed via the Internet through a Blu-Ray player, or from the cloud to a smartphone, the consumer’s question will be: What can I do with it? (Where can I see it? What device can I use? Can I transition seamlessly from one location, time, or device to another? What apps can I use to interact with it? How can I share the experience with someone else?) Imagine a consumer who tires partway through an HD movie on the widescreen at home and goes to bed. During her subway commute the next morning, she swipes her wireless tablet, and the operating system asks whether she would like to continue the movie. She taps the screen and starts watching at the same point she stopped the previous night. No single industry participant or network can seamlessly and consistently provide such services today.

That’s changing rapidly. Companies that provide software, operating systems, devices, storage, cloud computing, networks, and content are collaborating to form communications platforms capable of providing truly converged communications services. Converged communications services are consumer-centric: they allow the consumer to select appropriate services, they embrace auto-provisioning, and they offer seamless integration. Domestic wireless networks are a critical component of converged communications platforms within the U.S., but they are only one component of a much larger ecosystem. Providers of operating systems, applications, devices, and content are competing across video, data, and wireless delivery networks on a global basis. This global competition among converging communications platforms is playing a significant role in the state of competition among domestic mobile network operators. New applications and technological development is occurring more rapidly than ever in an environment of increasing traffic volumes and spectrum scarcity. The result is intense, chaotic competition.

The FCC’s traditional analysis of competition in the mobile segment – which emphasizes facilities-based services provided by network operators at retail to residential consumers – does not adequately capture the competitive dynamics of converged communications platforms. The convergence of communications and computing platforms, wireline and wireless integration, spectrum exhaust, macro-network offload, rapid technology deployment, wholesale and MVNO relationships in macro and micro radio access networks and the backhaul segment, converged devices and operating systems, and M2M services are all driving intense, chaotic competition in the mobile segment. The FCC should expand its traditional analysis to recognize this changing reality and its impact on mobile competition.

(For more information, see the reply comments WCAI submitted today in the FCC’s proceeding on the state of mobile wireless competition.)

The FCC's New Connect America and Mobility Funds: What They Mean for You

The FCC's new $4.5 billion Connect America Fund reforms the decades-old Universal Service Fund to promote modernization of the nation's communications infrastructure and bring broadband Internet services to millions of people who currently don't have access. Its Mobility Fund will assure that next generation mobile broadband services are more widely available in unserved rural portions of the US. In addition, the Order's sweeping reforms of the intercarrier compensation regime will affect both traditional carriers and providers of interconnected VoIP service.

WCAI will hold a webinar at 2:30pm ET on Dec. 13 to discuss these new developments and what they mean to WCAI's constituency. WCAI Counsel Paul Sinderbrand will moderate a discussion by Russ Hanser and Chuck Keller, former FCC staffers who are now partners at Wilkinson Barker, Knauer, LLP. The webinar - "The FCC's New Connect America and Mobility Funds: What They Mean for You" - is free of charge and open to all. Register Now!

Small Cells Advance at 4GWorld

By Greg Friesen, VP of Product Management, DragonWave Inc.

One of the top themes at 4GWorld in Chicago was the advancement of small cells. A new industry term that is being called several names, from small cells to Metro Cells to MicroCell to Pico, but all refer to street-level, urban cellular deployments. It was really encouraging to hear a lot of affirmative thoughts from industry experts that this type of small cell network architecture can, in fact, bring higher capacity per user, as well as improve indoor coverage. With growing constraints on spectrum, and as spectral efficiency limits are quickly being reached, there was overwhelming agreement at the show that small cells are the best way to meet the increasing mobile user data demands. Small cells are also a key piece to delivering improved indoor mobile coverage.

The 4GWorld focus on small cells was well timed with two product announcements DragonWave made at the show. The first was the introduction of two new microcellular backhaul products, Avenue Link and Avenue Site. The second announcement was a partnership with FiberTower to use its spectrum in conjunction with our Avenue products, allowing both companies to offer integrated microcellular backhaul solutions.

DragonWave’s Avenue product line leverages the small form factor, all-outdoor Horizon Compact Plus products, combined with a 5” mini-antenna to offer street level microcellular backhaul. The mini-antennas operate in 24Ghz, 26Hz, 28GHz, 32 GHz, 38 GHz and 60 GHz. With FiberTower offering 24 and 39 GHz spectrum covering 99% of the United States, the partnership, ensures that Avenue products are deployable for their entire U.S. customer base.

The Avenue Site product is unique to the industry by integrating all the equipment at a cell-site tower into a single unit that is deployable on a lamp pole, traffic light or side of a building. The Avenue Site includes three independent, easily aligned, high-capacity packet backhaul links, a UPS power supply, battery backup, Ethernet switching, a GPS antenna and a 4G base station slot.

With the introduction of small cellular architectures, there is a whole new set of deployment challenges that Avenue is designed to address. The first challenge is providing street-level, high capacity backhaul. As this architecture requires a five- to ten-fold increase in the number of sites, the next challenge is to reduce per site TCO by an order of magnitude. Avenue achieves this by reducing site lease costs, maintenance costs, CAPEX and installation costs through integration and micro site optimization. In addition, because many installers will not be trained in telecom, and likely will be the same staff used for other city maintenance, installation must be simplified. Features like self-test, integration, and simple alignment help to greatly streamline the installation process.

Even though small cells may still be in their infancy, it’s clear that carriers are preparing to build infill networks over the next few years, and we’re committed to stay at the front of this adoption curve.