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    HomeNewsWi-Fi: Big business for operators as offload, roaming move up the agenda

    Wi-Fi: Big business for operators as offload, roaming move up the agenda

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    New research is proving how Wi-Fi is becoming increasingly important this year as operators look to offload more data traffic and develop next-gen carrier-grade Wi-Fi offerings to better monetise data.

    Mobile operators will offload almost 50 percent of data traffic generated by smartphones, tablets and other 3G/4G devices to Wi-Fi and small cell networks in 2013, according to Juniper Research’s new report “Mobile Data Offload & Onload: Wi-Fi, Small Cell & Carrier-Grade Strategies 2012-2017”.

    The research firm said this is is equivalent to a global total of 9,000 petabytes or 10 billion movie downloads.

    “While a 4G connection need not necessarily mean more data usage, consumers are in fact adapting to faster speeds and more data services, which could lead to more data usage,” said Nitin Bhas, senior analyst at Juniper Research.

    “This increase in user demand for services in turn creates new opportunities within different economic sectors including commerce, energy, health and education, completing a cycle of demand”.

    Besides enhancing throughput and offload, operators are also interested in Wi-Fi as a way to earn new revenue.

    “Offload of data traffic is not enough; WiFi’s got to pay for itself,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and carrier WiFi at Infonetics Research, which also unveiled a new report.

    According to its global operator survey conducted, the fastest growing monetisation models for Wi-Fi services are tiered/premium hotspots, managed hotspots and Wi-Fi roaming.

    “Next-gen carrier WiFi has evolved to enable operators to deliver the same quality of experience as mobile networks through closer integration with the mobile RAN,” said Webb.

    “Hotspot 2.0 will go a long way to building the bridge between the technologies from a technical standpoint, but operators are still figuring out how to position WiFi within their broadband offerings and which service models will generate the most revenue.”

    Operators are keen to adopt the 802.11ac standard once it becomes commercially available and anticipate that at least 30 percent of new Wi-Fi access points will be based on the new standard by the end of 2014.

    Wi-Fi roaming is also on its way up. The Wireless Broadband Alliance today announced that several operators, including AT&T, BT, NTT DoCoMo and Portugal Telecom have achieved compliancy level by completing certain crucial network assessments following a common set of requirements for Wi-Fi roaming set down by the Wireless Broadband Alliance.

    The network assessments range from authentication, network discovery and selection, to network access security, data clearing/settlement, customer support, information exchange and charging models.

    Over 145 organisations are meeting this week at the Wi-Fi Global Congress in London to discuss agreements for Wi-Fi roaming and related services.