The “dumb pipe” risk for operators is nothing new in the fast and furious world of the mobile Internet. However, it’s an eminently manageable risk, given advances in traffic management technology and value-added services with the potential to close the gap between data volume and data revenue.

Please join senior executives from Sprint, Accenture and Bytemobile at 11:00 a.m. EST on Thursday, February 4, as they take on these and other critical issues in the first Mobile Minute webinar of the 2010 season.

The February 4 webinar – as advertised in selected FierceMarkets publications throughout Europe, North America and Asia – will be led by FierceWireless as part of its FierceLive! webinar program. Editor Phil Goldstein will moderate the discussion among Scott Lane, director of sales and marketing at Sprint 4G; Fabio Mungo, chief technology officer of Accenture Mobility Operated Services; and Joel Brand, vice president of product management at Bytemobile.

Please register to participate in the event here. The next Mobile Minute webinar will be held in April – stay tuned for details.

-Jaishree Subramania

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With iPhones already earning the reputation as ‘bandwidth hogs’, and networks with heavy smartphone use already under intense pressure, devices like netbooks and USB dongles are adding even more stress to carriers’ infrastructure.

With today’s introduction of the Apple iPad - a device for which users’ quality-of-service expectations are extremely high – operators’ capacity challenges are mounting and may push their networks over the edge.

What we know about the Apple iPad:

Every iPad has Wi-Fi, but Apple also has models with 3G.

There are two wireless data plans. The first provides up to 250 MB per month for $14.99. The second provides unlimited data for $29.99. AT&T is the exclusive service provider and includes free use of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots. In the U.S., wireless operators typically charge about $60 a month for a laptop data plan.

There is no contract — service is prepaid, so consumers can cancel any time. That’s a big change from the iPhone. All iPad 3G models are unlocked, so consumers can use them with any carrier that supports micro-SIM technology.

The question is: are carriers’ networks equipped to handle another, even more massive, explosion of mobile data consumption?

If Apple’s new iPad lives up to the usage patterns – and more importantly – the bandwidth problems of the iPhone, then the answer is: probably not.

In a recent Wall Street Journal blog post, Niraj Sheth wrote:

…the iPhone is hardly the kind of data guzzler the tablet is widely expected to be. After all, it’s one thing to squint at movies on a 3.5-inch screen and quite another to watch them in a relatively cinematic 10 inches.

With this in mind, carriers can surely expect a ‘secondary’ explosion in video and other multimedia traffic. They need to prepare their networks now in order to avoid consumer backlash. Another quantum leap in data traffic will not only strain the network - and thus the user experience - but will also strain profit margins due to out-of-control infrastructure costs.

We should expect to see the wireless industry put a priority on intelligently managing network traffic and experimenting with new ways to curtail the margin squeeze - whether through tiered pricing plans, stricter enforcement of fair use policies or new value-added services.

-Stacey Infantino

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The launch of 3G services in Vietnam marks a major milestone in the history of that country’s mobile communications. In April 2009, the Ministry of Information and Communications awarded 3G licenses to four telecom service providers in Vietnam. Two of the four licensees launched 3G services before the end of 2009.

Competition in the mobile communications market in Vietnam will intensify. Service quality and service plan pricing will be key factors in securing market share. To be competitive, mobile network operators need to differentiate themselves by offering the best quality of service, and at the same time, manage costs by maximizing the utilization of existing resources. A field-proven wireless optimization solution that improves the end-user experience and provides value-added features designed to reduce operating expenses and facilitate new revenue opportunities will be invaluable in overcoming various market challenges.

Bytemobile’s customer-centric approach has become part of the success stories of many mobile network operators today. Please visit this link for a small selection of customer success stories.

-Kok-Bin Lee

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In a recent news release, Telefónica Group announced that it is the first network operator in Spain to launch flat rate plans with Internet browsing speed rates of up to 21 Mbps. The company also announced significant web browsing enhancements as a result of deploying Bytemobile’s Web Optimization application, stating that subscribers that were previously browsing at speeds of 40Kbps in GPRS are now reaching 170Kbps as a result of Bytemobile’s optimization technology.

Like the majority of the world’s largest 3G network operators, Telefónica Spain uses Bytemobile’s Web Optimization application to increase capacity for growth in internet traffic and users, while enhancing the user experience with significant download speed-up on both handsets and laptops.

A long-standing customer of Bytemobile, Telefónica Spain, provides Telecomunication services to 44 million subscribers with more than 25 million mobile customers. As a group it provides telecommunications services to more than 268 million customers worldwide serving more than 205 million mobile customers at the end of September 2009. Today it is the leading mobile network operator in Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru, and has substantial operations in UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland, Slovakia, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is also the largest private shareholder of China Unicom, with 8% ownership of the company.

Bytemobile’s Web Optimization works with all devices — from low-end feature phones to high-end smartphones and wireless laptops and netbooks — and all networks — from legacy 2G to Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX. Acting transparently to both the content server and the client, Web Optimization requires no special processing or configuration by the content provider or the user.

-Stacey Infantino

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