The rise in data traffic carried over wireless networks in developed markets has taken many by surprise. By the end of 2008, mobile accounted for 20–30% of broadband subscribers in the more advanced Western European markets, such as Austria and Ireland. At the same time, revenue per megabyte continues to fall, driven down by increasing competition and the introduction of flat-rate pricing. Traffic growth is forecast to increase ten-fold in developed countries between 2008 and 2015, and seven-fold in emerging markets over the same period, so mobile operators must be prepared to provide a network that can not only meet this demand, but also deliver a healthy profit margin.
In this report, which was informed by a series of interviews with key operators, equipment providers, handset manufacturers and industry fora, we explore the issues that influence operators' decisions about which access technologies to deploy and when. We evaluate the factors driving up the usage of mobile data and offer our analysis of future traffic growth. The report considers the constraints that different technologies, such as evolved HSPA, femtocells and WiMAX, might place on the deployment of LTE, as well as the issues of spectrum availability, legacy infrastructure and device availability.
The report concludes with a detailed analysis of potential strategies that operators might adopt for the deployment of LTE.
Operator strategies for network evolution: the road to LTE answers your key questions:
- When can we expect to see the first commercial deployments of LTE?
- Globally, which operators will be the first adoptors of LTE?
- What role will femtocells play in the LTE ecosystem?
- Will operators deploy HSPA+ and under what circumstances?
- When will LTE devices become available and what form will they take?
- How will operators use their existing and new spectrum allocations?
- What cost savings can be made by deploying or optimising existing radio architecture?
