By Susan Campbell
There is a growing demand in the global market for advanced services. In fact, research has demonstrated that not only is this demand growing, users are willing to pay for such services. The top three advanced services in terms of demand are live messaging, next-generation music, and enhanced mobile video. Enterprise users are demonstrating that they prefer mobile collaboration, mobile cloud computing and multi-party video.
An Alcatel-Lucent Enriching Communications e-Zine article: “Users Seek Improved QoE with LTE” focused on these concepts and the importance of Long Term Evolution (LTE)-enabled applications and services as providers seek to meet consumer demand.
A recent Alcatel-Lucent survey of 4,500 consumers and 950 enterprises in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, found that customers fully believe they will benefit the most from improved speed. And, with access to LTE, they anticipate increase usage of their mobile phones for not only basic services, but also for enhance applications.
In fact, consumers also anticipate that they would use their wireless mobile devices more frequently for such things as accessing e-mail, sharing photos, the Internet and for downloading music. Of the advanced services applications suggested by Alcatel-Lucent in the survey, the most popular that would enrich the user experience in a next-generation network, included live messaging, next-generation music and enhanced mobile video.
The European market has certainly seen an explosion in the demand for video and content-rich services. This demand is being led by the maturity of 3G networks and global improvements in end-user QoE; the increasingly availability of video and multimedia applications; the proliferation of new devices; and the emergence of a new generation of users. To meet this demand, however, providers will have to begin to invest in a High Leverage Network.
Enterprises are also showing interest in Application Enablement, but the demand tends to vary based on the size of the business. In the survey, LTE-enabled services and applications were a primary interest for 58 percent of small enterprises; 78 percent of medium enterprises; and 87 percent of large enterprises. Those companies willing to switch providers for access to LTE-enabled services was very similar as 51 percent of small enterprises, 71 percent of medium enterprises and 82 percent of large enterprises were all willing to make the switch.
For enterprise users, there is a growing demand for mobile collaboration, mobile cloud computing and multi-party video, but to meet this demand, there must be end-to-end wireless IP available. Alcatel-Lucent can help service providers to transform their business model and operational model with an end-to-end 4G network that would include an open content and applications and device ecosystem; a full suite of IP transformation and integration services to support a smooth evolution; and integration of LTE and IP products.
Alcatel-Lucent research suggests that people are ready to pay for wireless and advanced services throughout the market. Mobile operators need to partner with a proven player to equip their networks to meet this demand.
