Need for mobile data monitoring solutions on the increase

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This amplified volume of data will place considerable strain on the networks of communication service providers (SPs) and their information management systems.

"These trends are also prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as consumer habits shift and many consumers are gaining their first internet experience through the use of a mobile device," states Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Industry Analyst, Joanita Roos. "The rise in local content, as well as the development of new apps, drives the demand for mobile broadband in SSA. Furthermore, the growth of social media platforms has increased the demand for mobile data services in SSA, particularly within South Africa."

Critical tools

Mobile data monitoring solutions are critical tools to improve overall mobile data performance and customer experience, as these can analyse mobile data and optimise the performance of their networks.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Global Mobile Data Monitoring Market, finds that the market earned revenue of US$312.4 million in 2013 and estimates this to more than triple, reaching US$1.103 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 19.8%.

Due to the rocketing adoption of smart devices, mobile apps and video are expected to be the most consumed types of data. This growth is unlikely to dip, as social networking traffic and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication continues to rise in popularity. Over the next five years, M2M traffic is expected to outstrip even that of social networking traffic, as connected devices and sensors are anticipated to exceed 50 billion units.

Currently, SPs are ill equipped to deal with this demand for data.

Positive end-user experience, lower customer churn

"Communications SPs must invest in mobile data monitoring solutions to ensure positive end-user experience and lower customer churn," states Frost & Sullivan Communications Test & Measurement Program Manager Olga Yashkova-Shapiro. "Already, many SPs have rolled out Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks and are exploring other data traffic offload strategies to keep pace with demand."

In addition to the adoption of smartphones, over-the-top (OTT) applications are contributing to the mounting demand for mobile data monitoring solutions. The swelling data traffic is forcing telecom companies to invest in more secure and complex testing capabilities to match strides with network expansions as well as upgrades in 3G and LTE.

"It is estimated that the number of smartphones sold in SSA will grow by 40% per year leading up to 2017," notes Roos. "This increase in smartphone penetration rates leads to the expectation that the mobile data demand per user in SSA will increase from approximately 0.08GB per month in 2012, to 0.45GB per month in 2016. This translates into a mobile data growth of an average of 119% per year."

This growth threatens to overload the capacity of mobile operators in SSA and offloading mobile data from HSPA and LTE to Wi-Fi network could be a viable strategy. However, it is important to note that realising this is dependent on the operators' technical, financial and strategic capabilities.

Demanding bandwidth-hungry applications

Consumers are also demanding more bandwidth-hungry applications, which require operators to deploy faster transmission links. When mobile users log on to 3G networks, they expect the applications to work seamlessly. Moreover, the information received from these different networks must be correlated.

Although the adoption of LTE has helped achieve the required data rates, there are significant concerns about the quality of voice and data. Companies are hoping to mitigate these issues with the adoption of voice over LTE (VoLTE), an IP-based multimedia system standardised by the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) to maximise international interoperability. VoLTE allows SPs to reduce the cost of delivery, enhance voice service offerings, and combat the service degradation in OTT services such as Skype and Viber.

"Traditional voice monitoring or service assurance solutions were not designed to analyse voice delivered over a data network," notes Yashkova-Shapiro. "Therefore, the demand for next-generation mobile data monitoring solutions to support VoLTE is expected to increase and more operators are investing in new mobile devices required to support the VoLTE standards."

Overall, SPs' keenness to provide the highest levels of quality of service and quality of experience is expected to sustain the demand for comprehensive management solutions and proactive monitoring.