Wireless All Around
Having access to wireless networks dramatically improves people’s lives. In mature markets, broadband wireless networks help keep people connected, productive and entertained. Here, location is irrelevant: People do business and connect with friends and family anytime and anywhere. The main challenge is to keep up with demand for newer, faster wireless services.
In high-growth economies, wireless networks help raise the standard of living. The challenge here is to provide access to people — almost 3 billion people — who are excluded from the mobile economy. Once access is provided, the goal quickly shifts to delivering better services.
Each wireless market presents unique challenges. But the rewards for extending wireless reach and capacity are great in every case. Access to wireless networks offers the promise of lives transformed through connectivity.
Wireless networks and GDP
The World Bank believes a 10 percent increase in mobile penetration can lead to a one percent increase in the GDP of low-medium income countries (Putting Broadband in the Palm of People’s Hands: A Model to Drive Faster Economic Growth: World Economic Forum, 2010, (pg. 1))
Knowledge Center: Wireless All Around
Learn more about the wireless potential in high-growth and mature markets.
Wireless All Around in mature markets
The wireless network needs to adapt. The type and volume of traffic on mobile networks is changing, and users’ expectations are growing. The future of wireless networks is about delivering better broadband services to more mobile devices.
For this to happen, mobile networks will need to become end-to-end IP data networks. IP is the language of the Internet. Multimedia is its new voice. Tomorrow’s wireless networks have to deliver multimedia traffic more reliably and efficiently, at the lowest possible cost.
Harnessing wireless intelligence
A smart network understands how customers use its resources. When it comes to supporting smarter devices, cloud-based applications and social networking, end-to-end traffic management and visibility are essential. With network visibility, operators gain intelligence that can help them react to issues before they become problems.
Adopting new business models
An all-IP network opens the door to new partnerships with application and content providers. These partnerships can speed time to market and generate dynamic new services that attract and retain customers.
Keeping users happy
Mobile users are demanding customers. They value quality of experience (QoE). But growing broadband traffic volumes are increasing congestion and lowering customer satisfaction. A look at network resources could yield solutions, such as limiting expansion to high-demand areas or offloading traffic to the wireline network. Wireless intelligence could help create different levels of service — and expectations — based on customer segments, device types, time of day or pricing.
Deploying new technologies
Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and large and small cells can be combined with IP to extend network capacity, improve QoE and TCO. Users are “mobile” but tend to use the Internet from fixed locations. Small cell topologies that cover homes, enterprises and public hotspots can be more economical than new carriers or base stations. These topologies can ease the burden on wireless networks by offloading mobile traffic onto wireline networks.
Wireless All Around in high-growth economies
In high-growth economies, providing access to wireless networks presents fresh challenges from one country to the next. In many cases, the focus is on providing basic services to the widest possible audience. Once access is established, the challenge is to keep pace with demand for better services, including broadband.
Universal access has become a top priority: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is seeking Internet access for all 2015. WEF research has identified three key strategies for unlocking the potential of wireless access.
Create compelling, scalable applications
Basic access comes first but the challenge quickly evolves. People need relevant applications. From here, the transformative and life-enhancing influence of wireless can really start to be felt. Inventing the future finally becomes a real possibility. There are already many examples of how innovative thinking and mobile applications are changing lives in high-growth economies.
Changing course
- Farm workers in rural Uganda discover new techniques and practices through low-cost SMS messages.
- Public health workers in South Africa use text messages to answer anonymous questions about AIDS.
- Indian farmers get daily weather reports that help them use water more efficiently.
Address infrastructure requirements
If current wireless traffic and technology adoption patterns continue, many urban networks will soon be overloaded. In contrast, many rural areas will remain underserved. Providing affordable services to everyone will be especially challenging in remote and sparsely populated regions.
LTE technology will help. It offers greater reach than other radio technologies and is extremely spectrum- and energy-efficient. Other innovations will help reduce environmental impact and cost even more. These include renewable energy solutions, smart grid technologies and hybrid wireless networks that make use of green technologies.
Provide low-cost services and devices
High-growth economies need mobile devices that are affordable to people earning less than a dollar a day. It’s essential to have low-cost mobile devices and services that average less than five percent of income.
Building Toward the Future
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Providing access to the wireless network is one of our greatest challenges. The rewards for success are significant. Wireless access can be one of our best weapons in the battle against poverty and inequality. In mature markets, maintaining and growing the mobile economy will safeguard the health and prosperity of individual countries. In high-growth economies, each achievement will give people better access to the tools they need to compete in the global marketplace.
Who knows? Maybe the concepts of mature markets and high-growth economies will themselves become obsolete. This much is certain: As access spreads and wireless usage increases, high-growth economies will need end-to-end IP wireless networks.
At Alcatel-Lucent, we’re ready. We’ve brought our wireless, IP and optical technologies and services assets together, and have harmonized and aligned them so we can deliver end-to-end technology innovation. Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs innovations are at the heart of all our offerings. We take leading roles in the telecommunications standards organizations, including ITU-T and IEEE, and global organizations like the World Economic Forum.
We also play a crucial role in the ng Connect Program, an ecosystem of infrastructure, device, application and content companies that offers all the benefits of open innovation. To find out more about how our Wireless All Around strategy can help you transform lives through connectivity, check out the Wireless All Around Knowledge Center.
