Offloading in Barcelona

"The major network technology issues to take center stage in Barcelona are fairly evident; we identified these in our annual prediction piece earlier in the year. Absent from this list, however, is a theme that stretches across multiple technologies: offload," writes Peter Jarich, a leading analyst with Current Analysis, in an article published on Connected Planet.

Call it offload, traffic offload, smart offload or intelligent offload - it will surely be a key theme at Mobile World Congress next week. Hopefully, live demonstrations and in-depth, in-person discussions will separate the weak from the relevant and viable solutions.

Consultant Dean Bubley agrees with Peter. On his Disruptive Wireless blog, Dean wrote: One of the major trends I'm seeing at the moment is that of mobile network offload - typically "dumping" traffic onto WiFi or other networks to avoid congestion from mobile broadband. I'm expecting it to be a huge feature of this year's MWC / 3GSM in Barcelona."

Peter highlights Wi-Fi and Femtocells as two key offload technologies. Clearly, Wi-Fi is a successful technology and has seen widespread adoption. Operators just need some additional technologies to better maximize the use of it. Operators interested in femtocell deployments can provide subscribers low-powered 3G base stations to provide ‘five bars’ of cellular coverage and better utilize them.

At MWC, Kineto will be demonstrating its Smart Wi-Fi and Femtocell Solutions that solve the capacity crunch; resolve the 3G indoor coverage challenges; and address the mobile VoIP threat.

Dean writes: "What's not clear to me is which of these techniques is the most effective or important overall."

Dean and I have faced off before, and I'm going to try to convince him, rather show him, which is best.

Visit Kineto's stand at MWC in Barcelona February 15-18: Hall 1, Stand A45.

Smart Offload for Smart Phones

Last week, Kineto and T-Mobile presented a free webinar - Smart Offload for Smart Phones - with Lynette Luna of Fierce. The discussion centered around a new challenge for mobile operators. With the deluge of smartphones in the marketplace, subscribers are becoming accustomed, and in fact are demanding, always-on access to web services at the touch of a finger. And they want it all with perfect coverage, high-speed data delivery and no disruptions in service.

Mobile operatos must handle this flood of data usage, while increasing service performance and improving coverage to maintain customer satisfaction, while keeping costs under control. No easy feat. So what should they do?

In the webinar, T-Mobile and Kineto explain the operator challenges and how Wi-Fi can provide the answers. It is a critical tool for managing offload for mobile networks.

Omar Hassan is senior manager, product development with T-Mobile US, and a Wi-Fi Alliance Board Member. He leads T-Mobile's Wi-Fi product development. Some of his key points included:
• There are 246 million data-capable devices in consumer hands today.
• Operators can leverage popular Wi-Fi to meet and exceed consumers needs.
• Wi-Fi will be critical to mobile operators.

The Kineto portion focused on Wi-Fi solutions for mobile operators:
• Basic Wi-Fi does not improve coverage or solve the capacity problem.
• Kineto's Smart Offload Solutions turns existing Wi-Fi access points into seamless extensions of mobile network.
• With Kineto's solution, there's an App for capacity and coverage.
• Read more about Kineto's smart offload solutions.

The Smart Offload for Smart Phones webinar replay is available now.

Kineto Turns UMA into "Smart Wi-Fi Offload"

Today Kineto, a leader in the UMA space, announced a new "Smart Wi-Fi Offload" solution. For all intents and purposes, it looks like they have renamed UMA into "Smart Wi-Fi Offload".

Not that it's a bad thing...

In the four years since UMA was introduced, there have been some major shifts in the market. Early UMA deployments were on focused on fixed-mobile substitution (FMS), and relied on feature phones (remember the Samsung G709?).

At the time, FMS (and FMC) were hot topics, but the mobile industry had never heard of an iPhone and mobile operators all believed that had more network capacity than they could ever want or need.

Skip ahead to 2010, landlines are a dying breed, subscribers are getting larger buckets of minutes and FMS is a natural occurrence. But the industry has been blind-sided by the meteoric rise of the smartphones, specifically web-driven devices like the iPhone and my Touch.

I was in a meeting with an industry analyst the other day who casually mentioned that he believes mobile operators will need to increase their current network capacity 10x in the next 3-5 years.

Consider that number for a minute. It’s staggering.

Now consider this: what are the options for an operator to increase their network capacity by a factor of 10?

• Add more segments and channels onto existing cells? A good, but finite, idea.
• Install more macro cells? Certainly that continues to be important, but even doubling the current number of towers probably wouldn’t increase network capacity 10x.
• Femtocells? Certainly this is an important technology, but there continue to be a range of growing pains.
• Wi-Fi is a great option. It’s already installed in the homes and offices of these ‘smartphone’ users, it doesn’t interfere with the macro network, and now with Kineto’s solution, it can be added as an application to the range of offending smartphones.

The reality is that to achieve a 10x increase in capacity, mobile operators are going to need to do all these things in earnest, starting today.

I think Smart Wi-Fi Offload is a good first step.