Having signed our biggest deal so far, to deliver the first roll-out of next-generation mobile backhaul, Virgin Media Business has opened the gates to the future of mobile data, says George Wareing, Head of Mobile and Broadcast.
The challenge – booming demand for mobile data
The mobile networks we use in the UK were built to cope with voice traffic – and they’re very good at doing that. But over the last 5-8 years following the birth of mobile internet, we’ve seen a huge growth in smart devices, and consequently the demand for mobile data has grown exponentially – putting far more demand on mobile networks than they were designed to cope with.
For the end user that results in a sometimes frustrating experience – you might be in an area where you have 5 bars of coverage, but you can’t connect to the internet or check your email. That’s usually because there’s great demand in that area, and with all the mobile users vying for the same network bandwidth, things get congested.
The demand for mobile data will continue to grow, with mobile data traffic predicted to increase by 33 times over the next decade (Source: UMTS Forum: “Mobile traffic forecasts 2010-2020”) And as more and more data services come on stream, mobile network operators are going to need a network that can handle larger and larger amounts of traffic.
The solution – upgrading your backhaul
As you might expect from Virgin Media Business, we’ve decided to approach this problem through innovation. Our mobile backhaul solution is the only Synchronous Ethernet, fibre-based backhaul solution on the market and it can vastly increase the capacity of your mobile network.
Upgrading your cell site backhaul to high-capacity fibre means you can carry more data, more efficiently. The result for the end user is faster mobile broadband speeds, whether they’re using their smartphones or their tablets.
At the moment, our backhaul solution can give you multiple 1Gbps speed – that’s a huge leap from the multiple 100Mbps the existing technology can offer. In the future we’ll also be offering multiple 10Gbps. So it’s a scalable solution – you can move to 1Gbps speeds now, safe in the knowledge that as you need it, more bandwidth is on tap.
We’re currently talking to the UK’s mobile operators and have just signed our largest deal to date with MBNL, Everything Everywhere and Three, to provide them with our 1Gb backhaul service – so customers on their networks will benefit from an unrivalled mobile broadband experience.
The future
Synchronous Ethernet backhaul will be a step change in the network, but if data continues to explode at the current rate, mobile operators will need to think about other, smarter ways of building networks. We’re sure that we’ll see the greater use of WiFi as a way of offloading data from the mobile network, as well as the deployment of small or pico-cells, capable of managing the demand for data in more discrete pockets. There are a number of different options and mobile operators will choose a number of different solutions.
Network performance – the new differentiator
Migration to 4G / LTE is undoubtedly the future, and our mobile backhaul solution supports that migration – so it’s not just a short-term fix.
As we move towards next-generation networks, we find ourselves in a strange situation where it’s become harder to differentiate your offering by the handsets and tariffs you offer. I believe there will be two key differentiators in the future: the services you offer and the user experience, underpinned by the performance of your network.
In short, having the right backhaul in place will be a key competitive advantage.
To find out how we can help you tackle mobile data demand, contact your Virgin Media Business account manager.
