Managed Networks Feature
March 12, 2010
Enterprises to Find Increasing Challenges with Wireless Networks
By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor
As wireless networks become a bit pinched, as in “flooded with data,” enterprises will have a tough challenge working to control them.
In fact, mobile data traffic from embedded computing devices is increasing so rapidly, according to a recent study, that if current trends continue – and that’s always the key phrase – the total number of bytes sent each month in 2014 will equal the total equivalent traffic measured in 2008.
This traffic originates “from laptops, netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices that are equipped out of the box with cellular or mobile broadband modems,” the study, ABI Research’s (News - Alert) “Mobile Data Traffic Trends for Embedded Computing Devices,” noted.
The research firm estimates that nearly 7,900 petabytes of data will be sent in 2014: “Laptops and netbooks will account for about 90 percent of the traffic, with the contribution from MIDs and media tablets remaining fairly small.”
Well, guess that depends if the iPad is the killer toy Apple (News - Alert) wants us to think it is.
According to ABI’s senior analyst Jeff Orr, though the portion of laptops, netbooks and MIDs that are sold with embedded modems will not reach a majority within the forecast period, “it will nonetheless be significant. The fact that network operators are offering modem-equipped netbooks at a subsidized price with a data service contract is an endorsement of the concept of embedded modems as opposed to add-on USB modems.”
But will the rollouts of 4G networks in these areas drive much of this data traffic demand? Not at all, ABI Research found, forecasting that even in 2014, 4G will handle only a tiny fraction of the traffic, since “the vast bulk will be handed about equally by 3G and 2G networks.”
Earlier this week TMC (News - Alert) reported that mobile industry analysts Ajit Jaokar and Chetan Sharma have published a new white paper titled ”Mobile VoIP – Approaching The Tipping Point.”
Over the course of the last decade, the paper finds, mobile devices have become the most ubiquitous consumer electronic devices ever invented.
Probably didn’t need to do a study to determine that. Yet the research finds that, “even in the poorest of the nations, mobile phones have evolved from being a luxury to an indispensible necessity,” and that multifunction phones are so common that now, “the paradigm of communication itself has undergone a significant transformation from just voice to multimode interaction.”
That basically means people don’t just talk on phones anymore.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Marisa Torrieri
