Facing up to the 'mobile data tsunami'
Nielsen's Roger Entner says the wireless industry is facing a tidal wave of demand from the proliferation of smartphones, and especially from the highest-end users who put the greatest stresses on the system.
Facing up to the 'mobile data tsunami'
Jeff Gelles, Inquirer Business Columnist
I wrote in today's Inquirer about AT&T's big upgrade of its wireless service at Citizens Bank Park. The company says it essentially quadrupled cellular capacity at the 45,000-seat ballpark by adding the equivalent of three new cell towers within the facility. Most of the early reports I've heard from iPhone users, who complained most vocally about the ballpark problems, have been positive.
The story quoted Nielsen anaylst Roger Entner about the 'mobile data tsunami' caused by smartphone owners who actually want to use their phones' fancy new capabilities to visit websites, send and receive pictures and video, and utilize apps such as MLB.com's "At Bat." As some readers point out, many fans would plainly prefer that the people around them keep their phones in their pockets. But baseball is a game with lots of downtime, so it's hardly a surprise that a sold-out ballpark would tax a network like AT&T's.
There are other solutions to the problem than the one AT&T chose. If it had been able to turn the ballpark into a public Wi-Fi hotspot, as it has done at AT&T Park in San Francisco, it would have been able to offload a lot of the data demand onto the broadband network. That same approach is offered by Sprint Nextel, whose 4G system relies on the broadband Clearwire network to offload data traffic. Verizon Wireless is apparently moving in the same direction with its planned 4G network, called LTE.
All the carriers face a huge challenge in handling smartphone demand, especially from high-end users. The chart in Entner's June blog entry, Quantifying the Mobile Data Tsunami and Its Implications, illustrates the problem's dimensions, and the incredible growth in network demand just since last year, especially among the highest-end users.
Entner thinks one of the answers may be the kind of usage-based pricing that AT&T is now offering its new iPhone customers. Verizon, in its recent argument that wireless networks should be exempt from net-neutrality rules, is also adopting a wireless-is-different stance. When I hear such arguments, I can't help but imagine how different today's Internet would be if metered pricing models had ever taken hold and if the old phone network's neutrality rules hadn't governed how each new website was treated.
But if you can't call up Entner's chart on your smartphone because your network is overloaded, don't blame him.
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That's an overly simplistic view. "Real baseball fans" might be looking in on the box score of the braves game, or checking in on stats. I know plenty of people who use their phone to put a picture from their seats on facebook. Maybe they have standing room tickets, and are trying to track down their friends. It's just that their are 50,000 people in a city block, and that needs a lot of connectivity. I bet most of the office towers downtown have their own cell node for the number of people inside.— Pelti
you can always count on some pseudo-purist to make the comment about what "real fans" would do. Lookit, you're not the barometer for what fans can do at ballparks. Get off the soapbox and consider that someone has a different view with respect to the "fan" experience at a ballpark. If you knew much about trends you would be aware that a) wireless customers expect access to content/applications/services everywhere. b) most collegiate and professional sports venues either have or are installing networks as a way to further enhance the fan experience or to extend their marketing platform....or both. If I pay for parking, seats, and concessions I can pretty much do what whatever I want within reason. Would you also suggest that REAL drivers, REAL diners, REAL travelers, and REAL hotel guests shouldn't use phones? C'mon son, GTFOTWTB!!— iknowstuff2- FYI anyone that buys a ticket is a "real" fan. at least to MLB— sasquatches
- Interesting the views people have when using the medium of anynomous article comments. Ha, "A real citizen of Philadelphia would pick up the news paper, not go online for their news!" It's 2010 guy, get with it.— RodneyRay
- Comment removed.
- duke santos you never had season tickets. ever.— sasquatches
- WHO CARES PHILLIES ARE CHEATERS ANYWAY— badbirdz
Reach Jeff at jgelles@phillynews.com.
