New tech to level operator/WLAN battlefield

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Harnessing new technology could be the holy grail operators have been looking for to help them battle WLAN vendors for a larger chunk of the enterprise mobility market, according to Analysys.

Indoor base stations, cellular radio enhancements and IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) could provide mobile operators with increased and improved coverage, greater integration and flexibility and the chance to experiment with new charging models, claims the analyst's report entitled "Seizing the opportunities from enterprise mobility".

"The limited coverage and throughput and the relatively high prices of indoor cellular services make it difficult for mobile operators to satisfy enterprises' requirements for mobility," said Dr Mark Heath, the report's co-author.

"However, the combination of three major technological developments could radically enhance the capabilities available to mobile operators, enabling them to make substantial improvements to their enterprise mobility solutions, and to fend off competing solutions from the WLAN community," he said.

The former new technology, for example, will enhance indoor cellular service coverage so that operators can consider new fee strategies, including low-cost or free internal calls, while cellular radio enhancements, such as HSPA+ and CDMA2000 1× Revision B, will beef up capacity so it's on a par with the throughput of systems and indoor base stations offered by WLANs.

The third new opportunity presented through the use of IMS technology will help mobile players to deliver the interoperability and slickness of services businesses have come to expect.

"Armed with these new technologies, mobile operators are well placed to attack the mobile enterprise market," said report co-author Dr Alastair Brydon. "One approach would be to use the technologies to integrate enterprises' existing systems and applications with their cellular networks, although this would need substantial support from systems integrators."

Brydon added: "An alternative, albeit more radical, tactic would be to aim for pervasive cellular mobility, whereby the same cellular network solution is used to deliver all of an enterprise's services and applications in every environment. For some enterprises, the simplicity and uniformity of a common cellular service in all environments will have major benefits."

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