On a global scale, the mass migration to 3G network technology is yet to come. The chart below – produced by In-Stat, the mobile internet/digital entertainment market intelligence firm – indicates that in 2010, only 17% of the world’s 4.3 billion mobile subscribers are on 3G networks or higher. This means that 83% are unable to play video and access other high-bandwidth applications that the proliferating iPhone/Android community uses every day.

In the second half of 2008, a number of 3G networks began showing signs of stress due to traffic congestion caused by multimedia-hungry subscribers with powerful mobile devices. After years of investment to drive data adoption and fill their 3G pipes, the operators of these networks were now facing frustrated consumers forced to contend for bandwidth and watch stalling videos.

Two years later, the stress has become seriously aggravated and elicited public comments like the following from the AT&T CTO, in response to widespread criticism of network service quality: “We will move heaven and earth [to meet our customers’ growing data needs]” (VentureBeat – July 12, 2010).

The In-Stat data, corroborated by other industry sources such as Gartner and Morgan Stanley Research, makes it clear that the challenge to operators is still in its infancy. Moreover, it will continue to accelerate for the next decade and beyond, as a) more consumers adopt mobile data, b) more consumers upgrade to iPhone-/Android-class smartphones, and c) more networks advance to 3G and beyond.

-Tod Bottari

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Image courtesy of Ondra Soukup  via the Creative Commons attribution license.

Andrew Seybold, consultant on technology and trends shaping the world of wireless mobility, today published an interesting perspective on data congestion and new pricing models. Seybold prefaces the article with the following scenario:

Every network operator with the exception of Sprint/Clearwire is moving to broadband data usage pricing models and away from all-you-can-eat data. If you have an iPhone, you still have access to unlimited data, but if you opt to tether it to a notebook or other external device, your all-you-can-eat pricing goes away. Why is this happening?

You can blame this on data hogs—that 3-4% of the wireless broadband population that accounts for nearly 50% of all wireless broadband usage—but it is also because wireless bandwidth is shared bandwidth. Unless bandwidth is well managed, data hogs end up with most of it and the rest of us with very little. Data usage has increased more than 5,000% over the last two years and there is no sign of a let-up. A large percentage of wireless broadband traffic (some say up to 40%) is video, which is increasingly popular and requires a lot of bandwidth.

Responding to the current state of the mobile industry, Seybold offers a number of ways to manage available bandwidth and capacity usage in wireless networks, including the roll-out of new pricing models.

Click here for the article. 

-Stacey Infantino

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Image courtesy of Ben Dodson via the Creative Commons attribution license.

Since Apple made the iPhone OS 4.0 beta available, developers have been digging for clues as to the future of the iPhone platform. We believe that one of the answers is tethering, a technical term used to describe a mobile internet connection from a laptop/PC using a smartphone as a modem.

So what tipped developers off to this future feature? A new configuration page for internet tethering and an alert sent to users to call AT&T to set up tethering. Tethering has always been in the future of wireless data plans. It was not a matter of if, but when.

If tethering really is a feature of the next-generation iPhone, it will provide another incentive for consumers to switch to wireless-only homes – no landlines and no wired Internet. Very likely, even the most generous projections of mobile data growth will end up proving conservative.

-Subhi Andrews

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Image courtesy of thierryvilaysith via the Creative Commons attribution license.

The mobile ecosystem is buzzing with a variety of interesting conversations taking place. Here are a few of our recent favorites. What are yours?

Visa officially announces a case that turns your iPhone into a credit card - MobileCrunch

A sign of things to come in the video streaming space?
●As of its fifth anniversary, YouTube exceeds 2 billion views a day -  CNN
●YouTube streams Indian Premier League Cricket Season 3 live, reporting 54 million views - The Wall Street Journal

Simple ideas for going paperless - American Express

A sneak peak at the HTC Wildfire - RCR Wireless

Cancer – cell phone link inconclusive - Wireless Week

Share your thoughts with us, here.

-Subhi Andrews

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