VoLTE calls may be a strategic service for operators as it offers operating expense (OPEX) and capital expense (CAPEX) reductions through the promise of repurposing 2G and 3G, but call drops can be four to five times higher on such calls compared to traditional services, says an Amdocs study.
“The quality of experience VoLTE provides initially, post-deployment, can be less stable than the traditional voice service it replaces, requiring aggressive tuning by the operator,” it says.
The research also suggests that the volume of mobile data usage is growing across the world at about 60 percent year-on-year. However, only 5 to 15 percent of Wi-Fi traffic is going through mobile devices and which is able to be accurately described as Wi-Fi offload. It says that service providers need to offload more traffic from cellular networks to Wi-Fi networks, in order to realize greater cost and operational efficiencies.
Seventy-five percent of network traffic in cities is in-building and indoor users face up to 25 percent increase in network issues compared to outdoors users. By understanding and visualizing the real-world patterns of demand, coverage and congestion, operators could effectively target network optimization efforts at these problem areas to deliver a consistent, quality of network experience.
The research is based on analysis of more than 25 million voice and data connections from 80 different network operators around the world in the past 12 months. It further says that SMS is still the killer app with an average of 70 percent of attendees at a concert or sporting event sending at least one text message during it, which causes spikes in network usage. Despite the fact that international roamers can offer operators greater revenues than a corresponding locally-based subscriber, their network experience can be up to 25 percent worse.
“The Amdocs State of the RAN research reinforces the shear strain mobile networks are under,” said Ann Hatchell, Head of Network Marketing at Amdocs. “In The New World of Customer ExperienceTM, service providers need to deliver a first-class network experience when and where it matters most. By leveraging the power of RAN software, service providers gain operational efficiencies and improved service agility with a centralized vendor-neutral approach. This allows them to optimize quality of experience, even under times of network congestion, and build better relationships with high value customers.”
