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With more than half of U.S. subscribers now owning a smartphone, it’s clear that we’re quickly approaching the end of the “dumb phone” as we know it. Data-eating activities such as streaming music and app downloads are quickly on the rise, and on-the-go video is becoming a standard practice as opposed to a rare occurrence. Take the Olympics for example – according to NBC, the games garnered 64 million total video streams in the first five days alone.
Statistics like these reinforce the fact that service providers need to strategically plan methods to support these sharp increases in data. A recent Rethink Technology Research survey sponsored by Amdocs supports this theory, stating that data usage is expected to increase at least twentyfold in the next five years.
In this survey, an overwhelming 100% of service providers agreed that the latest 4G and LTE technologies will only partially deliver the efficiencies required to handle the necessary network capacity. Service providers are looking towards the use of small cells to help alleviate the capacity issue. For background, small cells are very compact, low power, short-range cellular base stations and can be femtocells or metrocells. Femtocells can be installed in a home or small business using broadband, while high-capacity metrocells are typically used around large public buildings such as shopping malls and sporting arenas.
With the deployment of small cells to handle the growth in consumption, service providers are recognizing that more involved network planning and management tools will be needed to support the network. With almost two-thirds of carriers expecting to see at least 10 times as many cell sites by 2017, they will undoubtedly face new challenges in terms of planning and management.
Twenty-four percent of service providers rated securing sites in the best locations as the most urgent concern, followed by core integration (21%), the cost of acquiring small cell sites (19.5%) and the logistics of identifying and acquiring the sites (17%). Close behind came backhaul for small cell sites, cited by 12% of respondents as the most pressing challenge. As a result of these concerns, 45% of operators expect to invest in new tools and services specially designed for small cell networks over the next four years.
In addition to small cells, 88% of service providers expect to offer Wi-Fi as part of their mobile services by 2016, with 22% anticipating they will have Wi-Fi integrated into at least half of their cell sites by the end of 2017, further reducing the data burden on 3G and LTE.
With half of all carriers expecting to increase their capital expenditure by as much as 20% between now and 2017 (and 23% planning to increase it by even more), it’s clear that service providers understand the importance of beefing up networks in preparation for this data surge to ensure that consumers are receiving the best mobile experience possible. An intricate combination of small cells, Wi-Fi and 4G technologies will allow smartphone users to continue to stream video and utilize apps without interruption. Who likes buffering anyway?
