No matter what type of network technology or application the wireless industry develops, you can bet that the test and measurement providers are prepared to measure how it performs. The major players tout equipment that can test basic voice and related services as well as Voice over Internet Protocol and WiMAX gear.
And as new technologies come to market, new markets open for accompanying test equipment.
Indeed, AirMagnet Inc. recently introduced a Voice over WLAN analysis tool, which the company says detects voice problems at the source and determines their origin, whether it be a wired or wireless network problem, quality of service setting or even a handset. The company points out that with VoWLAN still in the early stages of adoption, issues affecting the end-user experience-such as dropped or failed calls, dead spots, poor voice quality and choppy audio-are proving to be significant barriers to adoption.
“If an Internet page takes a few extra seconds to load, or an e-mail takes an extra minute to arrive, the impact on the user is minimal,” said Chia-Chee Kuan, cofounder and chief technology officer of AirMagnet. “But when voice packets are delayed, and calls are dropped, users are negatively affected. It’s not enough to know that a VoWLAN problem exists; to solve a problem absolutely, it is necessary to determine the specific source and eliminate it.”
Kuan’s comments shed light on two trends within the industry-more focus on the subscriber experience and end-to-end analysis capabilities, stretching from the deep core of networks all the way to end-user devices.
Agilent’s Karl Whitelock, lead strategist at the company’s Assurance Solutions Division, gets right to the point.
“You can’t take your eye off the ball, you still have to make sure that the network works properly, but it’s not the only thing that matters anymore,” explained Whitelock. “You better be able to measure the customer’s experience.”
Whitelock went on to explain that while testing and measuring can be a technologically complicated business, its market drivers are not complicated at all.
“Carriers,” he said, “are interested in revenue. They want to hang on to their existing revenue by eliminating customer churn, and they want to tap into new sources of revenue.”
Launching revenue-producing applications and new technologies is, for the most part, a costly and risky endeavor for carriers, as they must expend dollars and allocate resources long before they realize any profits. Whitelock said test and measurement products help operators figure out which applications will stick with their customers and provide long-term revenue. In addition, Whitelock said operators understand that they can reduce their subscriber churn by measuring and understanding the experiences of their customers.
Agilent’s answer to measuring the customer experience is its assureME suite of products, which can measure both network performance and subscriber experience, including information about how a network or an application interfaces with a handset, PDA or laptop.
“In the past, a lot of finger-pointing took place during troubleshooting, and the network always got blamed for everything,” said Whitelock. “But now, we’re offering network providers with tools that help them pinpoint whether problems stem from their network or from other sources, like applications on the outer edge of the network or even from a subscriber’s terminal device.”
In the past, carriers were limited in the information they could gain from test and measurement equipment. They could collect information about how their networks performed to the base-station level, but that was the end of the line and was considered end-to-end measurement. But now, with the ability to peer into the communications between the network world and the myriad of devices used by subscribers, carriers have a fuller picture, allowing them to identify valuable customers and evaluate their level of service.
“Keeping these big customers happy is their ultimate goal,” Whitelock said of carriers. “It’s how they make their money.”
It’s also part of how they save money. By pinpointing or isolating where problems exist, whether it be proactively or after a trouble report is initiated, troubleshooting is more focused and produces more accurate results, saving the operators both time and resources. And the resulting improved customer experience plays right back into the operator’s financial rewards.
Analysts agree that service providers are increasing their investments in measuring the customer experience, including their level of satisfaction. BCC Research believes this increase in spending will push the market for test and measurement gear for both wireless and wireline networks to grow from $6 billion in 2005 to $11 billion in 2010, which is an average annual growth rate of 12.9 percent. And while BCC found that wireline networks are stagnating, even declining in some areas, wireless networks are growing quickly and will have a much larger installed base in 2010 with test equipment sales reaching $7.2 million, up from about $3 million in 2005-an average annual growth rate of 19.3 percent.
Focusing on the customer experience and developing products for emerging technologies provide the test and measurement community plenty of room for growth. After all, said Whitelock, “Whatever the new thing is, if you haven’t got an ability to measure how it performs, you’ve got big problems.”
But how many vendors will these growth areas support? Will test and measurement vendors consolidate through mergers and acquisitions? Will Chinese vendors make a run at test and measurement equipment? And what of the upcoming advanced wireless spectrum auction? Will it provide vendors with new sales avenues for their wares?
Keith Cobler, market development manager in Network Diagnostics & Management at Tektronix Inc., said the industry will likely not see major consolidations, as there are only a handful of big companies competing in the test and measurement space. Smaller firms may be acquired by larger ones, but large firms will not merge with or buy out their competitors.
However, the role of Chinese vendors remains to be seen. Though ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. have not announced plans to develop test and measurement products, Cobler said they could be waiting until they have a larger market share for their network infrastructure products before they delve into test and measurement gear. Overall, Cobler said it’s unlikely that they’re positioning themselves in the test and measurement marketplace.
Whitelock agrees, pointing out that operators are not likely to purchase test and measurement equipment from the same manufacturer who sold them network infrastructure products, saying it would be asking the vendors to test their own equipment-the data could be questionable. Could China produce test and measurement startups? Of course, but their scope would likely be limited for some time, to say, technology like their homegrown TD-SCDMA.
Regarding the AWS auction, Scott Wright, Business Unit Manager for Anritsu Corp.’s Measurements Solutions business unit, said, “We do expect it to impact our business. There are operators in need of spectrum, and others are planning to put new systems in place, or they will lose their spectrum. Then there’s WiMAX, and there are different types of operators working in this standard, like ISPs and utility providers. There’s a whole new group of customers coming into our marketplace.”
Nonetheless, test and measurement equipment vendors are poised for substantial growth as consumers continue to demand more services and applications to enhance their mobile lifestyle.
Like Whitelock, Cobler also believes customer satisfaction is the cornerstone behind any successful business model within the communications industry. As customers demand ubiquitous services and applications, service providers must rely on both fixed and wireless networks to deliver, along with test & measurement technology that can help them rake in the revenue.
“Most notably, test and measurement developers have evolved into true strategic partners with infrastructure manufacturers and network operators because they (manufacturers and operators) want to deploy revenue-producing services faster than their competitors,” said Cobler.
