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Worries over how much traffic the mobile networks can handle

Since the launch of mobile broadband it has quickly gained popularity and the amount of people using mobile broadband is set to keep on growing with some industry officials stating that there are now seven times more people using mobile broadband since it was first introduced. However, there are several mobile broadband experts expressing concerns over the amount of traffic that mobile broadband networks can handle given the rising increase of users.

The concerns about mobile broadband are that the heavy traffic associated with the rising uptake of mobile broadband could lead to slower downloading and browsing speeds, as well as various other problems relating to heavy mobile broadband traffic. With this in mind, it is essential that the mobile network operators, such as Vodafone and T-Mobile, who provide the mobile broadband service equip themselves to deal with the problems that can arise from large volumes of mobile broadband traffic.

Kevin Russell - the CEO of 3 - has said that although the mobile broadband provider had tried hard to prepare for heavier traffic through mobile broadband trials in other countries, it had still experienced issues that it hadn't anticipated. The unforeseen problems have included blockages in unexpected areas along with mobile broadband capacity issues in Sweden and Austria that they found were harder to identify. Backhaul and capacity are also relevant and the mobile broadband provider is under no illusions that they need to have solutions in place for their mobile broadband service to flourish even further.

Several recent reports have indicated that the level of mobile broadband popularity has grown to such an extent that some mobile broadband industry experts predict many mobile broadband users will end up abandoning traditional landlines at home and move to mobile broadband. When you also consider that the introduction of next generation mobile broadband technologies, such as Wi-max and LTE (Long Term Evolution), mean that mobile broadband and mobile internet access speeds of up to 100Mbps will be available by 2010, perhaps the current fears about mobile broadband are all a little premature.

If current mobile broadband trends continue and mobile broadband network speeds and capacity are increased it seems unavoidable that mobile broadband is very much the future.


26/05/2008
Author: CompareBroadbandUK staff writer

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