The battle for faster, better mobile data

Akamai released its Q1 2013 State of the Internet Report recently, showing an explosive growth in mobile data while voice traffic volumes were flat.

The Akamai report, which uses insight from mobile vendor Ericsson, shows that mobile data continues to show exponential growth.

The volume of mobile data traffic doubled from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013, and grew 19% between the fourth quarter of 2012 and first quarter of 2013.

Mobile voice traffic continues to grow as well, though at a slower rate. Voice traffic increased just 4% from the first quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

The continued growth in mobile data means that mobile operators have to continually improve their network to cope with the increased demand.

While the latest radio access network (RAN) technologies (such as LTE) and higher capacity transmission links can assist to increase capacity, more spectrum is sorely needed for the mobile operators to cope.

Unfortunately handing out valuable spectrum is still tied up in bureaucratic political processes, which means the mobile operators have to find other solutions to compensate for the lack of spectrum.

Voice and data traffic – Q1 2013

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