Wireless Connectivity

Mobile Internet is Taking Off

Written by Anonymous on 12:32 AM

Over the next four years, the world's telecommunications groups will begin to deploy 4G wireless broadband services, ushering in what some have described as the mobile internet.

"The mobile internet is the new, new thing in the industry. And it is here for real and happening now," said Arun Sarin, Vodafone's outgoing chief executive in a keynote speech at the recent CTIA conference in Las Vegas.

The new technologies that provide the springboard for the mobile internet include WiMax, the 4G standard backed by Intel, Motorola, Samsung and others; and LTE (Long Term Evolution), the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) technology favoured by most of the world's largest incumbent operators including Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and China Mobile.

So far, WiMax seems to be leading the race, with real products coming on to the market now and big deployments under way, including the $14.5bn Clearwire consortium in the US, backed by Clearwire, Sprint Nextel, Intel, Google and three of the largest US cable TV networks.

LTE will not be ready for commercial deployment before the end of 2009 but has significant backers among both incumbent operators and telecommunications infrastructure providers, including Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel Lucent.

In terms of speeds, LTE and WiMax stack up very well against one another; both are expected to deliver peak download speeds of around 100Mbps. And while they are often positioned as rivals, these new 4G standards share much in common including incorporating advanced wireless technologies. Adherents of each also speak of ubiquity, speed, global standards, and an IP address for every piece of equipment.

Perhaps most importantly, they will both enable carriers to deploy high speed, mobile networks based on internet protocol providing their customers - including businesses and mobile professionals - with fixed DSL-like speeds anywhere the 4G network reaches.

So what does this mean for businesses and for mobile workers? As carriers discovered when they began to roll out 3G networks, most users do not care about the underlying technology. Instead they are concerned about the applications and services the technology enables.

But no one is really sure what the killer app for 4G will be, or even if there is a killer app at all.

There appears, however, to be general agreement that business users will continue to demand ever-faster mobile broadband access. For instance, a recent survey conducted by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey among 114 IT decision makers working for companies with at least 1,000 employees, reported that nearly half of all enterprises currently use 3G cellular services, and that more than one-third plan on using WiMax technology within the next year.

Among the main reasons cited by respondents for deploying mobile enterprise applications were increased employee productivity and increased employee availability.

We are seeing some indications that enterprises are beginning to look at wireless broadband as an extension of the network itself," said Mike Jude, an analyst at Nemertes Research. "They are starting to think about how to enable mobile networks with access to company applications such as enterprise research planning, customer relationship management and inventory.

Ollie Chivers, head of business marketing at T-Mobile in the UK agrees.

The business benefits (of broadband wireless) are enormous," he says. "High speed broadband opens the floodgates to a whole range of business applications and features, all designed to increase productivity in a pressurised 24/7 economy which hinges on quick decision making and an 'always there' assurance.

Bill Hogg, president of AT&T's wireless network services agrees. Like others, he believes Apple's iPhone provides a glimpse of how a well engineered mobile internet device might be used by mobile professionals - AT&T's iPhone customers spend twice as much time browsing online than typical handset users.

He also believes high speed mobile broadband will allow businesses to access many of their existing enterprise applications without the need to re-write them for slower, higher latency networks.

Mark Rowland of US-based IBB Consulting adds that 4G wireless technologies (LTE and WiMax) should have quite different economics from the current generation of 3G data networks, due to IP-centric and flat architectures. "These networks will have lower latency, making them suitable for providing real-time applications, such as gaming and voice and high capacity connection allowing the provision of rich media services," he says.

"Business should be able to improve the flexibility and responsiveness of their organisations," he argues.

The combination of Homezone and officezone networks in conjunction with 4G macro networks will allow enterprises to drive the adoption of mobile-centric devices further into their organisations and improve flexibility, responsiveness, productivity.

Phil Skeffington, principal consultant in the Information, Communication and Media division at telecoms consultancy Mott MacDonald Schema, suggests some specific uses for 4G: *Mobile video/music. Premium content, such as videos, sports events and music can be downloaded much more easily to a WiMax or LTE-enabled device.

The beauty of mobile broadband is that it is not tied to the home or an office - the consumer can watch at home or on the move. There are commercial models and technology available to allow pay-per-view or subscription-based business models, thus maximising the flexibility for consumers. *Mobile CCTV. With 4G technology, local authorities and law enforcement agencies will be able to move CCTV cameras as the needs of the local community change. If crime blackspots move, so can the camera.

CCTV cameras can be used for different applications, too: for traffic flow monitoring, issuing parking fines, monitoring sports events and concerts. Indeed the same camera can be used for more than one purpose or used at a specific time, giving the public much better value for money. *Outside broadcast. WiMax and LTE are ideal technologies to support outside broadcast/live news gathering. A broadcast quality camera can be fitted with a WiMax/LTE card and live recordings can be uploaded for near real-time broadcast, or for editing immediately prior to broadcast. This will enable broadcasters to cover many more events. There will be no need to pre-book satellite links for outside broadcast, thus increasing broadcasters' flexibility and reducing costs. *Local search. Real time location-based information will turn 4G mobiles and PDAs into a "concierge" service. One could foresee directory services and search engines using the location-based information to enable a list of Michelin-starred restaurants within a mile of the user to be downloaded on request. *Mobile health service applications. As the number of elderly and frail people increases, the need to be able to treat them in their own homes becomes more important, both because of cost and "quality of life".

LTE and WiMax will enable health visitors to access and update centrally stored patient records while on a home visit and provide appropriate care there and then. Employers could also use location-based information to track the progress of the health visitors on their rounds, optimising and updating as additional "jobs" are added to the employee's joblist. *Disaster control. In response to emergencies, mobile cameras and control rooms can be set up quickly, allowing video footage to be relayed to trained personnel in near real-time. This will assist in the control of such incidents by maximising the information available. Aerial and ground-based cameras can be used to provide an overall picture of a flood or fire, helping emergency services allocate resources. Experts could provide assistance remotely, from other counties or even countries.

Andy McBain, Motorola's senior product marketing manager in Europe adds: "One of the main benefits of high speed mobile broadband is its potential for transmitting visual information.

"Coupled with the increasing fidelity of handset displays, it is now possible to stream high-quality images and video to and from mobile handsets. As a result, mobile engineers, delivery people and other workers can verify task completion, provide evidence in legal contexts and can also allow workers to overcome obstacles they might face by sharing them with offsite colleagues."

In addition, he suggests that the ability of high speed broadband handsets to transmit both voice and data without compromising the quality of either means that workers can use their mobile devices for a variety of applications, such as customer service and record keeping, rather than just for voice calls and mobile messaging.

"The increased availability of near-instantaneous data transmission also means that workers will not need to carry around supplementary data on SD cards or other devices, which can easily be stolen and present a notable security risk," he says. "Rather, it can be safely accessed as and when it is needed."

But Mark Rowland of IBB Consulting says these capabilities could also pose a threat to operators. "If we assume that more capable devices with open operating systems become available with a host of compelling applications that encourage the broad adoption of 4G networks, then it is going to be difficult for operators to avoid becoming the dumb pipe, just like the fixed operators," he says.

"They might have to settle for charging a connection fee with the rest of the revenue going to third-party service providers. This is the nightmare scenario for the operators, but customers will have a very broad range of service providers and services to choose from."

David Perry, director of Cognito, a UK-based mobile workforce specialist, also sounds a note of caution. "Businesses need to look at the applications requirement for mobile workers," he says. "Is there a killer app out there that is stalled because it's starved of high bandwidth, low latency IP comms? I'm not sure; the only services to benefit would be high-quality broadcast video or video conferencing, as existing 2.5 and 3G technologies work fine for internet access, sharing photos and messaging (the biggest killer app so far), none of which are widely used by business today.

"I see WiMax and LTE allowing more competition for multiplay consumer broadband delivery and unified communications.

They will make it possible for mobile network operators, phone companies and TV companies to compete to provide a range of presence-based IP voice, video and data services that are today delivered by a patchwork of over-the-air, satellite, cable and fixed wire broadband and circuit switched voice.

By Paul Taylor