Notebooks and eReaders to Onload 24% of Their Data Traffic to the Mobile Networks by 2016

Hampshire, UK – 18th April 2012:  A new report from Juniper Research has shown that mobile network operators are to face significant additional pressure over the next five years – not only from smartphone and tablet usage, but from data traffic being onloaded to the network from netbooks, laptops, game consoles and eReaders. Juniper Research estimates that 24% of all traffic generated from these devices will be onloaded to the cellular network by 2016.

This means that the annual data traffic onloaded from these devices onto the mobile network will reach over 7,500 PB (Petabytes) by 2016, which equates to a voluminous 3 trillion music track downloads.

Migration from Fixed to Mobile

The Data Offload & Onload report found that the migration of data traffic from fixed to mobile is primarily due to the increased performance of mobile broadband services when compared to fixed broadband services in many regions of the world, and the low penetration of fixed broadband penetration in emerging markets. The majority of the data onloaded onto the cellular network will be concentrated in regions where 3G/4G network are ubiquitous.

According to report author Nitin Bhas, “Consumers are also tethering their mobile devices with laptops and netbooks for data connectivity, using unlimited-bundled data plans providing them with the advantage of requiring no modem, new configurations or any other gadgets. With the introduction of 4G speeds, users are expected to increasingly take advantage of tethering in the future”.

Data Offloading is Key

The report highlights that even though 4G is a very promising opportunity from a capacity and performance standpoint, it is still constrained as a resource and comparatively expensive. Operators will still need offloading technologies such as WiFi & small cells to augment 4G networks.

Further findings include:

·         Mobile data traffic offloaded from the operator networks will reach just over 59% in 2016

·         North America and Western Europe will together account for over 76% of the offloaded data

The new report ‘Mobile Data Offload & Onload: WiFi & Small Cell Strategies’ along with the ‘Mobile Data Offload~Avoiding the Jam’ whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full report.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.