Communications and Technology Industry Research

Camiant (News - Alert) Inc., provider of policy control and application assurance technology, has published a new study titled "Mobile Broadband in North America and Europe: Change is Key to Maintaining Profitability," in which it proposes new elements in business models to attain profitability in mobile broadband.

 

The research outlines the challenges in the mobile broadband marketplace and explores mobile broadband adoption and growth trends in Europe and North America as well as operators' capabilities to control and monetize growth.

The findings of the report cautions mobile broadband operators to foresee their network limitations and costs of expanding their existing infrastructure in the coming years as traffic volume is expected to skyrocket. They also have to note and act to counter the advantages data cards and smartphones provide to users. With operators seeing anywhere from 100% to 800% bandwidth growth, there is a clear need to design new business models for the mobile broadband market.

 

"Mobile carriers around the world, especially those offering 'unlimited' data plans which are more popular in Europe and North America, must rethink their approach to wireless broadband network management," said Anton Denissov, research analyst with Parks Associates. "Failure to implement refined network controls and business policies would condition abusive consumer use patterns and accelerate service commoditization."

 

In order to maintain a profitable service the firm advises that operators be more service centric, not connectivity centric. They all need to employ reasonable pricing structure and monetize traffic as well as users. New business models need to resolve usage inequities by charging a user for usage that actually taxes the network rather than for using a device that may tax the network. Users need to be encouraged into turning to connected devices and see more advantages in their service than mobile or PC cards, only then operators can maintain customer loyalty and increase their revenue.

 

"The time is right for mobile operators to embrace new business models and to train users to behave in a long-term economic fashion, and not expect 'all you can eat' models," said Randy Fuller, vice president of business development for Camiant. "Operators who implement more refined policies and models that monetize traffic early on, before consumer expectations and behaviors are conditioned, won't be the ones leaving money on the table."