Mobile Darwinism: Adapt or be Throttled
Monday, March 5th, 2012 Kevin Murray, VP, Product Marketing
Many of us have experienced it. The great network slowdown when we are in high density locations, like city centers or events. Our smartphones show maximum 3G bars, but we can’t even update our status on Facebook. Some big data consumers (aka data “hogs”) may have even been throttled (connectivity purposely slowed as we surpass the 1.5 GB mark). Being unable to connect is frustrating, annoying and anxiety laden.
The strain of limited and congested cellular bandwidth is already impacting the mobile workforce. In our latest iPass Mobile Workforce Report, we found that over the last year, there has been a 25 percent decline in satisfaction among mobile employees with their mobile network service. This is primarily attributed to data coverage (only half of respondents were satisfied) and network speed (only a third of respondents were satisfied).
Some experts are predicting this is only going to get worse with wireless traffic growing exponentially — in triple digits (111 percent), and smartphones consuming 24 times more data than old-school cell phones and tablets consuming five times more data than smartphones. And this isn’t just limited to the telecommunications industry either; Gartner recently predicted that by 2015, 80 percent of newly installed enterprise wireless networks will be obsolete due to the initial installation of non-scalable technology.
We are experiencing the first effects of ‘Mobile Darwinism.” As we define it, the evolution of technology and data consumption outpacing the ability of networks and business infrastructures to adapt.
But ‘Mobile Darwinism’ is not about the victims it is about the survivors. It is how we will adapt to the change and the technologies that we will implement to ensure that we can be globally mobile that matter. As Charles Darwin said, “it is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”
At iPass we’re a fairly optimistic bunch. One positive sign that enterprises and telecom service providers will adapt and rise to the bandwidth challenge is the resurgence we’re seeing in Wi-Fi. This quarter’s report showed that 61 percent of a mobile worker’s day is within range of a Wi-Fi network, and 83 percent of respondents are within range of Wi-Fi for 16 hours a day.
Mobile workers are also actively using Wi-Fi (offloading the traffic themselves from strained cellular networks) – 58 percent of respondents reported they actively use Wi-Fi more than two hours a day on their smartphones, 73 percent on their tablets, and 83 percent on their laptops.
Download the report >>
Read the press release >>
Good stuff, keep it coming!