Not Every Mobile Operator Now Experiences Data Congestion; Only 60%

Bandwidth is one of those issues upon which one always can seem to find an argument. One always can get an argument about whether access is fast enough, cheap enough or good enough; whether bandwidth demand is growing at unmanageable levels or just growing. Virtually all retail service providers report a highly-skewed consumption pattern, with a small percentage of users consuming disproportionately.

Others maintain that even if such really-heavy patterns exist, it doesn't affect overall performance or experience very much.

But a new survey of 30 global mobile operators suggests that more than 60 percent of global wireless service providers do experience data congestion today, with 20 percent reporting that data congestion is severe at specific times.

The study, conducted by Telespirience on behalf of Amdocs, probably won't end the debate.

Service providers in the Middle East and Africa report that this overload poses serious consequences for their brand reputation and has led to an increase in customer complaints around service quality; Asian and American operators say it is contributing to churn.

Data demand is driven by smartphones and laptops with mobile broadband: In the Americas and Europe smartphones are driving data demand, accounting for more than 40 percent of total data consumption.

In Asia, the Middle East and Africa, laptops with mobile broadband is the key driver. A further factor fuelling demand is flat-rate data tariffs where “bandwidth hogs,” although comprising only an estimated two to three  percent of the customer base, are consuming approximately 30 percent of the network’s capacity, contributing to further service degradation for the overall user base.

About 75 percent of wireless service providers surveyed say end-to-end quality of service has the single greatest impact on their bottom line, partly because of increased customer support costs and customer churn.

Wireless service providers see building out additional network capacity as essential, with 97 percent of those surveyed reporting they intend to roll out Ethernet to alleviate congestion. Respondents said that the gap between the growth in demand for capacity as compared to revenues received for data services was a matter of concern, though.

"Wireless service providers face a 'perfect storm' with data demand doubling year on year, yet revenues are static due to flat-rate pricing," said Teresa Cottam, research director of Telesperience.

To be sure, there are all sorts of reasons for moving to fourth-generation platforms that only secondarily involve an immediate need for bandwidth. Most observers believe 4G networks will cost less to operate, on a delivered bit basis. To the extent that revenue never seems to scale linearly with additional bandwidth, that is a huge advantage.

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