Making Wi-Fi a strategic asset – WBA Roundtable
Monday, June 20th, 2011 Karen Ambrose Hickey, Editor
Being a first time attendee at a WBA conference can be a fascinating experience, if you like to be among the best of the best carriers and network partners in the world.
The likes of BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Portugal Telecom, Vex in Brazil, China Mobile, Cisco and even Google are here at the 19th WBA Roundtable & Ecosystem Conference . WBA, the Worldwide Broadband Alliance, is quickly becoming a strong alliance among carriers, network services providers and device partners who have a common goal: to deliver a cellular-like, secure Wi-Fi roaming experience. As one presenter said, the Wi-Fi experience needs to be just like a smartphone – just turn on the phone and get connected; it just works!
The morning began with Introductions and the opening address by Chris Bruce, Chair of the WBA and CEO of BT Openzone. Chris spoke about the insatiable appetite for mobile data and the cost and revenue challenge this is presenting for Carriers creating the opportunity to deliver Wi-Fi as part of the carrier solution. “On the pause” has become “always on”. The result is that Wi-Fi has become a strategic asset and with that, it is forcing network operators to address the user experience as user interfaces drive adoption of Wi-Fi usage.
Next, the VP/GM of Cisco’s Wireless Networking Business Unit, Ray Smets, gave a “reality adjustment” talk on Roaming 2.0 – The Undiscovered Country (Star Trek anyone?). His statistics for the future of mobile data traffic were quite staggering. By 2015 mobile data traffic will reach 75 “extabytes” (one quintillion), yes, extabytes. That is equivalent to 19 Billion DVDs, 536 quadrillion SMS text messages and is 75 time more traffic than ALL the traffic in 2000!
By 2015, two thirds of mobile traffic will be video (yeah Netflix and Hulu!) and will more than double every year between 2010 and 2015. And this stat is certainly one that resonates with those who read our latest Mobile Workforce Report: by 2015, tablets will generate data traffic equal to the total data traffic in 2010! And lastly, that by 2015 7.2 billion devices will exist; a mobile connected device for every member of the population.
As some of us were still working out the word “extabytes”, we heard from a Principal Analyst at Informa who continued that smartphones are set to be the primary device to connect to hotspots. Therefore, network operators of all types will need to provide Wi-Fi to users as public hotpsots mushroom from about 1.4 million in 2011 to 2.4 million by the end of 2012. He continued his talk expressing the importance of “smart Wi-Fi”; carrier-grade technology used to deliver a carrier-grade user experience i.e. a quality experience.
His analysis shows that users will prefer to connect to hotspots provided by trusted providers and that users will continue to show a willingness to pay for Wi-Fi *if* it matches their expectations in terms of availability, performance, usability and security. His prediction is that Wi-Fi is becoming another access network, in other words, a delivery platform for all operator services.
The rest of the sessions included Portugal Telecom talking specifically about their goal to make Wi-Fi easy, reliable, secure and portable. He was followed by Marjorie Leonidas, head of Wholesale and Roaming for BT Wi-Fi who spoke about the value of different business models for different types of traffic as well as the importance of the standards that WBA is delivering to help global network operators with integration such as 802.1x which supports the secure and seamless authentication of Wi-Fi.
The best and last presentation, not through any bias of course, was that of Dr Angelo Mavridis from Deutsche Telekom and our own Marcio Avillez, VP of Network Offerings, who presented the strategy and new offering from Deutsche Telekom based on Open Mobile, DTs’ WiFi Mobilize.
A great start to WBA’s 19th Roundtable Conference and an alliance of which we are proud to be an active member.
Tags: 4G network, enterprise mobility, mobile network, wi-fi access
