We all love a fight, and for a long time small cells and Wi-Fi offload have been presented as competing approaches, mostly with Wi-Fi as the initial, cheap-and-cheerful solution that would eventually be replaced by carrier-grade small cell deployments in high-density areas.

This is not what is happening. The pressure on mobile operators to increase capacity – and especially capacity density (i.e., mbps per square mile) – is so strong that they cannot pick between small cells and Wi-Fi, but they equally need both. And this is because operators increasingly realize that the two technologies not only offer an incremental increase in capacity, but they can play a different, complementary role.

LONDON -- Strategic Opportunities in Service Provider Wi-Fi -- Mobile operators need to make better use of Wi-Fi, but one of their biggest challenges is identifying where they can add value to the user experience, according to Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Gabriel Brown.

The company is offering the contract-free service at no cost for one year with the purchase of either a $100 HotSpot or $50 USB stick to power any Wi-Fi-capable device, including laptops and tablets. After the free year, consumers can continue on with free service of 200MB per month or upgrade for more data ranging from $9.95 per month for 500MB of data to $49.95 for 4GB per month. Once a users reach their cap, they won't incur overage charges, but rather have the option of topping up, upgrading to a higher-capacity plan or discontinuing service until the next month.

Pressure of 4G Consumption has Operators Redesigning Unlimited Data Offerings

It could be considered a sign of the times – 4G times – where the demand for bandwidth has finally exhausted supply.  It may also be an indication that the time has come for mobile network operators to take a deeper look at ways to monetize in a 4G world.  Regardless of perspective, the reality is that the days of “unlimited” mobile data plans are numbered.

AT&T recently announced that it would be implementing bandwidth throttling for “grandfathered” unlimited mobile data customers who exceed usage limits within a billing cycle.  While throttling is not a new concept for AT&T, which began to throttle back its top 5% of bandwidth consumers in 2011, the new policy it has adopted is much less ambiguous and is likely to be better understood by customers.  The change will see customers of AT&T’s unlimited data plans having their throughput reduced if their data consumption exceeds 3GB for 3G/4G smartphones or 5 GB for 4G LTE smartphones.  Customers will be notified by text message the first time they exceed these limits.  AT&T stopped offering unlimited data plans to new customers in 2010.

Equipment Vendors Investing to Capitalize on Benefits of 802.11

Recent announcements by Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Ericsson all point to a renewed interest in the potential of Wi-Fi as a critical technology for 4G wireless networks.  Wi-Fi, once viewed as a solution only enterprises, hot spots or digital cities could embrace with any sort of passion, is quickly becoming a darling technology of not only operators but also “carrier-grade” infrastructure vendors. 

Initially shunned by operators as unwieldy to manage, insecure and generally unreliable, Wi-Fi is emerging today as a clearly viable contender for 4G access.  Almost all smartphones and tablets currently being shipped support Wi-Fi access for high speed wireless broadband, as do most laptops and notebooks, as well as an increasing number of non-mobile devices such as televisions and M2M-enabled solutions.  Beyond its seemingly ubiquitous presence, Wi-Fi also brings with it the benefits of being standards-based and unlicensed.

By Jason Armitage, Senior Analyst, and Declan Lonergan, Research VP, Yankee Group Consumer VoIP land-line services are a big hit in Europe. According to Yankee Group’s 2011 European Consumer Survey, over 40 percent of Europeans in the five major markets have a primary or secondary VoIP line or make phone calls from computer to computer. And while consumer VoIP calling at the present time is primarily a broadband phenomenon, the increased popularity of smartphones and application downloads, however, is likely to change this. This dynamic is quickly taking shape. At the launch of Skype’s first app for iPhone in April 2009, the company reported more than a million downloads in just two days. In August 2011, Facebook launched its stand-alone Messenger application and almost immediately topped the charts on the Apple App Store. As a next step, consumer VoIP services are positioning to compete in video calling over mobile devices, taking on services from device vendors with the provision of cross-platform capabilities. Currently, several European mobile operators have blocked consumer VoIP calls on mobile phones. This means those operators’ smartphone users can only make Skype and other VoIP calls via Wi-Fi—when they are at home or near a Wi-Fi hotspot. In contrast, 3 (in the U.K. and Italy) offers consumer VoIP services—and specifically Skype phones—as a differentiator. These two approaches sit at opposite ends of operators’ potential strategic responses to consumer VoIP services. Operators have also tried the tactic of launching their own services. In the European region, Tier 1 operators have implemented this for over a year, but early indications show these services are struggling to match the takeup of consumer VoIP services. In Yankee Group’s recent user study, operator-owned VoIP services hardly show up, despite the high usage of VoIP among ...

WiMAX technology is continuing to attract operators interested in bringing broadband internet to customers who recognize the value of 4G services

Clearwire announced yesterday that they will be offering a new personal WiFi hotspot for connecting to their 4G Wimax network. With the new Clear Spot 4G-Apollo you and seven other devices can connect to Clear’s blazing fast Wimax network while on the go.

By Caroline Gabriel, Research Director, Rethink Technology Research Femtocells may have entered the consumer mainstream on the back of improved indoor coverage, but for carriers, one of their real attractions is the chance to offload data from overstretched 3G networks. There has been something of a war between the femtocell suppliers and those pushing Wi-Fi offload, but at last week’s Femtocells World Summit in London, it was notable that the femto vs. WLAN dispute had quieted down. This is because the operators themselves are eager to use any spectrum and technology they can get their hands on to cope with the rise in data traffic in urban areas, and so the emphasis has shifted to pooling both resources. Doug Pulley, CTO of femtocell silicon leader Picochip, stressed the point that unlicensed spectrum--and therefore its key technology, Wi-Fi--will not drop out of the cellco equation just because LTE comes along. Pulley was keen to see new air interface options, notably LTE for the license exempt bands. WiMAX was the last standard to promote a vision of spanning licensed and open frequencies, but its 5 GHz profile gained little support as its agenda shifted toward 2.5 GHz and mobile broadband. It could still be revived as an unlicensed option for vertical applications like public safety but in the short term, Wi-Fi is the dominant technology. The femto community knows it needs to accommodate this, indoors and in public access, as most operators will look to tap into all available bands, and femtocells will need to support that strategy. Picochip is showing the way via a joint development with InterDigital, an initiative that has created a dual-radio gateway in which cellular and Wi-Fi run concurrently, to offer a "super-connection" across licensed and unlicensed frequencies. The converged gateway architecture puts a carrier ...

Deutsche Telekom and iPass are partnering to launch a global WiFi solution meeting the needs of smartphone users from carriers worldwide.

Deutsche Telekom: Making mobile Internet even easier.

So, if you thought you'd buy a Xoom -- which works on WiFi, Verizon's 3G network, and its 4G/LTE network -- and get out of paying for an extra data plan, you were wrong. (At least it's only one month.) And, speaking of data plans, users will be able to get ...

It is also still a little buggy, with only basic functions like WiFi, voice calls and 3G data and GPS working fully for most. Though Technomancer and the XDA crew are currently working on the bugs, so stay tuned for an even more stable update or at least ...

Here’s the latest disappointing news (from ars technica): More Xoom details: $800, Feb. 24 launch, WiFi crippled without data plan The $800 price tag is near the top-of-the-line 3G iPad’s price ($830). However, the Xoom’s features could offset that ...

It is also still a little buggy, with only basic functions like WiFi, voice calls and 3G data and GPS working fully for most. Though Technomancer and the XDA crew are currently working on the bugs, so stay tuned for an even more stable update or at least ...