Stimulating Growth for Telecoms – Co-existence of Wi-Fi with other Technologies
With an ever increasing number of mobile broadband data surge at the customer level and bandwidth-intensive services competing for limited radio resources, Wi-Fi is no longer an option for the end-customers, but it is quickly becoming an only choice of technology which can deliver seamless connectivity to cater to the growing data needs. At the Operators level, this trend of Wi-Fi co-existence with other technologies such as 4G / LTE will ensure future-proof growth for them. According to telecom experts, this scenario of co-existence of Wi-Fi with other technologies jells well with the present challenge for operators to meet the growing data demand and yet ensures that their network’s backhaul is running smoothly.
With more and more global operators lining up their launch towards embracing 4G networks, they will experience an unprecedented demand in data which can only be sufficed with the help of parallel and efficient Wi-Fi strategies. With the rising demand for anytime-anywhere connectivity, Wi-Fi is not just being used indoors in offices and private homes, but also increasingly used in public places such as stadiums, Malls, airports etc.
In the near future, this trend is likely to prompt operators to adopt better data delivery mechanism as well as better Wi-Fi solutions to their network investments so that their customers get seamless and authorized Wi-Fi service. There are many operators which are engaged in the deployment of small-cell network called “hetnet” or heterogeneous networks. Industry experts believe that such will be able to work with larger conventional base stations to improve indoor coverage, potentially increasing capacity by upto 400%.
Advantages of Wi-Fi Co-existence
- Wi-Fi can be used as a free bundled service with 3G/4G/LTE services.
- Wi-Fi can help LTE operators to provide service in distant area where subscriber base is low but wireless data access is required and investment budget of radio is low. LTE operators can deploy Wi-Fi at such places and provide data access to their LTE subscribers.
- Indoor locations like basement, underground railway stations, skyscrapers where 3G/4G radio is difficult to deploy or provide good range – Wi-Fi can provide better data service experience to end customers.
- While 3G, 4G is costly in terms of spectrum, Wi-Fi is much more affordable option for the subscribers.
- It easily supports LTE-Wi-Fi interworking for carrier grade network performance
