Novel usage patterns, new technologies and regional idiosyncrasies make it difficult for mobile operators to meet evolving customer expectations, according to a new report.
Maximizing UMTS performance while increasing LTE reach is most efficient using detailed traffic analysis based on actual customer demand patterns and location experience data: such accurate intelligence is fundamental to network planning, design and enhanced user experience.
“Smartphones Trump Tablets”, the latest annual report into mobile data traffic from vendor Arieso, shows smartphone customers drive heaviest demand and users consistently require more capacity than tablet owners.
Michael Flanagan, CTO of Arieso and report author, told Mobile Europe: “Consumption levels and patterns of LTE use are very different to what operators could expect from 3G making it important for them to know exactly what experience their customers have and how networks perform.
“LTE will exacerbate the data problem by supporting more extreme behavior.
“Unlike voice, data traffic tends to be uniformly distributed, naturally diffused and users stationary and therefore highly concentrated.
“MNOs need to understand traffic patterns and process existing subscriber and geo-location data, correlating that with the amount of data consumed/generated. The resulting heat maps demonstrate where demand, data peaks/troughs are.”
In 2012, one per cent of users consumed 50 percent of downlink data on 3G/UMTS networks.
LTE networks are attracting heavy users taking some of the strain caused by demand for higher speeds and more capacity.
Marina Lu, research associate at ABI Research added: “Western Europe’s mobile subscribers racked up 3,077 Exabytes in data traffic by the end of 2012, up 39 percent compared to 2011.
“3G data usage contributed 64 percent of the total – 4G is still attempting to find its feet.”
To meet the needs and expectation of LTE customers and heavy users effectively requires a different approach to network design, planning, optimization and performance.
Small cell placement and management must be undertaken with surgical precision – only possible if operators know where traffic and demand are heaviest.
Adding cells based on accurate information reduces total cost of ownership while improving customers’ experience, the report found.