TekPlus - Who is The Lord of Wireless Data Comms?

Some mobile operators have already noticed the threat/opportunity that WLAN provides and this is demonstrated by Telia, Sonera and Telenor all having deployed such services. This could be “to be first to market” and try to make it less attractive for other operators to enter the mobile data market. However, many fixed access operators and ISPs will look to tap into this market and compete with mobile operators in delivering high-speed data connectivity to mobile business users. The amount of wireless LAN infrastructure going into enterprise sites will put pressure on service providers to provide wireless remote access to enterprise networks. Many mobile operators will need to evaluate the threat posed by hot spots in the delivery of data services to the mobile enterprise and how this could impact 3G revenue streams. Wireless LAN provides operators that control the last mile with the ability to offer some kind of remote wireless access to enterprises; this will be a battleground for 3G and WLAN service providers. It is not a question of which technology will win, each enterprise will have different remote access requirements. Choices will be made based on cost, return on investment and other traditional measurements. The question is whether it will be a sufficiently important battleground for incumbent operators and others to consider entering the WLAN hot spot market and whether or not mobile operators need to also invest in this technology. There is also the possibility of virtual operators appearing and providing both 3G and WLAN hot spot services, should 3G fail to capture the imagination of enterprises and consumers alike, leasing network capacity from 3G license holders.

As a result of the pros and cons of 3G versus WLAN they lend themselves to different applications and uses. The suitability of each technology to perform different functions or to be used in certain environments is shown below. 3G is better suited to providing business users with access to narrow bandwidth applications such as e-mail and will be used literally on the road when there is no WLAN coverage, such as in cars or remote areas. WLAN can only provide access when a user is sat down to complete a task and this is more likely to be a data intensive application as they have time to do this task, this more often occurs in hotels, airport lounges, trains and other public spaces. By all accounts it will be the data intensive applications, which will account for a significant proportion of the mobile data revenues.

Figure 1.3 Suitability of 3G and WLAN Hot Spots

WLAN hot spots do not escape negative criticism since there are many standards available and not all of them are compatible or ratified (figure1.2). These problems should be resolved, but as with any standards problem this will take time. Products complying with the h standard will not be made available in Europe before mid-2002. Other WLAN problems include QoS, data rates and error rates need to be resolved before operators can deliver services to enterprise end-users. However, there are many plus points to the deployment of WLAN, it is cheap to deploy, no license fees need to be paid to governments, less skilled telecom engineers are required to deploy WLAN equipment and it is easy to add more base stations to provide more bandwidth in congested areas. Despite the fact that wireless LAN has a range of 50m, base stations can be placed in many locations to provide sufficient coverage, this does not mean that it is wholly suitable for providing outdoor coverage.

Figure 1.2 Wireless LAN Standards

There has been much talk of 3G and WLAN Hot Spots and how they are expected to impact the European market, however it is not clear where and how these technologies overlap. It is felt that this overlap is small and of little consequence, however if we focus on the business user side of the market then this overlap increases especially when we consider that this will be the first key target market for 3G operators and WLAN Hot Spot providers. Both services are yet to be deployed across Europe, however, WLAN services can be put in place now where as the first commercial 3G services are not expected to appear till late 2003. This means that WLAN hot spots could gain an advantage over 3G as the medium by which users access data intensive applications remotely.

If we take a look at the pros and cons of 3G and WLAN we can see what they are capable of delivering when the time comes for the deployment of these services,(figure1.1). The deployment of 3G is fraught with problems, despite the fact that operators have spent so much money on licenses. The quality of service provided by 3G is questionable since the coverage of a cell varies with the number of concurrent users utilising the 3G services. The cell size can shrink or expand depending on the number of uses and this results in connections to drop, it is therefore difficult for operators to provide QoS and SLAs to enterprises that include bandwidth as a measurement. Before operators can even deliver a service they need to deploy base stations and other such equipment and at present there is a lack of suitably qualified telecom engineers and knowledge in maintaining a 3G network and there is also likely to be a problem in the supply of dual GSM/3G handsets. Despite the negative aspects of 3G there are many positives to be found including widespread coverage, suitability for voice communications, always-on availability and easy roaming.

Figure 1.1 Pros and Cons of 3G and WLAN Hot Spots

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Who is The Lord of Wireless Data Comms?