In short, the coverage at work is poor, coverage elsewhere will likely be sought.

The YouGov research commissioned by SpiderCloud Wireless indicates that consumers are sending a strong message to mobile operators that cellular coverage is as important at work as it is as home.

38% of all consumers surveyed said they would switch mobile operators to achieve better coverage and reception inside their office buildings, while an additional 36% were on the fence.

“Both consumers and IT decision makers share the common pain point when faced with poor cellular coverage at work. Today’s workforce is a mobile connected workforce,” says Ronny Haraldsvik, CMO of SpiderCloud Wireless. “The YouGov research findings from 2014 and 2013 show consistent feedback: reliable mobile coverage and capacity indoors is a critical need for today’s enterprise customers.”

More information about the survey’s findings will be available later today from SpiderCloud.

The post YouGov survey: Mobile Operators Better Get to Work appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The times are, indeed, changing, according to excerpts from the firm’s most recent 2G, 3G, LTE Mobile Services and Subscribers market size and forecast report.

“Europe continues to be the main drag on global mobile services revenue, but Europe’s BIG 5—Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Vodafone—see some light at the end of the tunnel, with looming consolidation that should ease the pressure on mobile services revenue,” explains Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

Other mobile services market highlights uncovered in the report summary include:

• Worldwide mobile service revenue barely budged in the first half of 2014 (1H14), up just 0.5% from the same period a year ago, to $385.5 billion
• Gains in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), Asia Pacific, and North America together offset a high double-digit decline in EMEA
• For the first time, voice usage slightly slowed, dragged by China where over-the-top (OTT) alternatives took their share
• Mobile broadband revenue rose 26% in 1H14 from 1H13 and continued to drive overall mobile services market growth
• Despite the rise of mobile data, blended ARPU continues to fall, but at a much slower pace in every region, including developing Asia Pacific

The post Report: Mobile Broadband Tops SMS as Top Generator of Mobile Data Revenue appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to details shared with MMW, predictions cover “five key consumer services” topic areas: Communications, Services Ecosystem, Content, Connected Life and Commerce.

So what’s on tap for the New Year? Here are three of the projections made in the report:

Debate over net neutrality far from over

The debate over net neutrality shows no signs of letting up, meaning that the controversial regulatory and legal battles will continue for the foreseeable future. In Europe, where the mobile market is struggling to retain value, carriers will increasingly look to offer bundles of fixed and mobile services, while in the US mobile carriers will continue engaging in relentless price competition around data access, but will also seek to build customer loyalty and keep rivals from poaching their subscribers.

No end in sight for price war in the US

US mobile operators spent 2014 launching retaliatory data pricing salvos against one another, and the barrage will continue into 2015. With the four national operators deploying robust LTE footprints, opportunities for service differentiation are growing scarcer. The greatest price erosion ever in the industry was experienced during Q3 2014.

OTT and operators – from foes to friends?

The impact of OTT services grew during 2014, and carriers are finding it increasingly difficult to compete against OTT messaging apps. Many, such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, are garnering significant scale and threaten carrier relationships with their own customers. This scenario will encourage the growth of partnerships between carriers and OTT players during 2015, with the OTT providers benefiting from the carriers’ customer relationships.

The post Analysts Look at What Lies Ahead for Mobile Operators in the New Year appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the projections made, it will take more than 5 years for 5G to reach the 100 million subscriber mark—2 years longer than 4G.

ABI says the reason 4G subscriber growth was much faster than previous generations is because it was fueled by the capabilities of increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of 4G devices.

Unfortunately, 5G subscriber growth will “likely be a bit more muted at first due to the increased complexity of 5G cells and networks.”

But by 2023, 5G will gain serious steam.

“There are a number of commonalities between countries that are early builders of 5G networks. They have a large population, of which a large percentage is living in urban areas. They also have many companies pushing the envelope with IoT strategies. These countries will drive 5G subscriber volumes,” says ABI Research Director, Philip Solis. “These are the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom in order of 5G subscribers in 2025.”

The post Waiting for 5G? Keep Waiting… appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the always-insightful data the researchers serve up, LTE is set for a big 2015.

The report in question tracks more than 50 categories of equipment, software, and subscribers based on all existing generations of wireless network technology. In short, a projection from Infonetics isn’t a casual guess.

“In the mobile infrastructure market, the third quarter of 2014 was almost a carbon copy of last quarter, and we are now reaching the peak of plain LTE rollouts, which are so brisk in China that they are overshadowing strong activity in Europe, the Middle East, and Russia,” says Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

Among the report highlights shared with MMW include:

Operators are currently spending around $5.6 billion per quarter on LTE, and this has prompted Infonetics to raise its 2014 forecast for the global macrocell 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile infrastructure market to $45.4 billion, up from $43 billion the prior year
Investments initially earmarked for 2015 have shifted to 2014, reinforcing Infonetics’ prediction that the LTE market will peak in 2015
China continues to push LTE through the roof, but the rest of the world is also moving fast to LTE, with 331 commercial networks launched as of September 2014, as per the GSA

Infonetics’ quarterly 2G, 3G, LTE mobile infrastructure report is available here.

The post LTE Market to 'Peak' Next Year appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

There’s confirmation. Recent network usage data from Mobidia Technology, Inc. shows LTE (an abbreviation for Long-Term Evolution, commonly marketed as 4G LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals usage in the U.S. continued to increase in Q3.

Currently, Wi-Fi usage accounts for 80 percent of all data consumed.

Mobidia, one of the leading providers of mobile usage data, just released new insights on mobile data usage in Q3 2014 in the U.S. The analysis, based on data from July through September of 2014 (and covering hundreds of thousands of wireless subscribers in the U.S.) indicates increased cellular, LTE, and Wi-Fi usage as subscribers continue to expand app and media usage on their smartphones.

One highlight: the firm’s stats show that Verizon and Sprint subscribers use more LTE data than AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers.

“Additionally, the data reveals the continued reliance of smartphone subscribers on Wi-Fi networks in 2014—consistent with trends identified over the past few years—with iOS and Android users consuming 82 percent and 78 percent of their mobile data on Wi-Fi networks, respectively,” noted Mobidia.

Key takeaways:

1. On average, U.S. subscribers consumed 1.8GB of cellular data every month in Q3 2014. Those on Android phones consumed 6.8GB of Wi-Fi data and those with iPhones consumed 8.9GB of Wi-Fi data.

2. Sprint and T-Mobile subscribers consumed the most total data with 10.2GB and 9.5GB per month, respectively.

3. Verizon subscribers enjoyed the most access to LTE networks with 98 percent of their cellular data consumed on LTE networks. LTE data accounted for 93 percent of cellular data consumed by Sprint subscribers and only 86 percent of data consumed by AT&T subscribers.

4. U.S. LTE subscribers with iPhones consumed an average of 12GB of total data—nearly double that of 3G subscribers’ usage. Their 3G counterparts consumed only 7.1GB of total data.

5.  For subscribers of the big four U.S. operators, at least 92 percent of subscribers used Wi-Fi at least once a month. This number is higher for iPhone users, 98 percent of whom access Wi-Fi monthly.

“U.S. wireless subscribers with LTE capable devices have cranked up their data usage this year,” said Chris Hill, senior vice president of marketing at Mobidia. “In fact, LTE subscribers are consuming almost twice as much cellular data as 3G subscribers, according to the reports we’ve received from hundreds of thousands of cellular subscribers in the U.S.”

The post Burning Up the Wires: U.S. iPhone Users Consume the Most LTE and Wi-Fi Data appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

If that prediction proves prophetic, it will represent growth of 204 million units over 2014.

Additionally, ABI Research estimates that the total number of LTE connected devices shipped worldwide will exceed 1.89 billion units by the end 2019.

“With the proliferation of larger screen smart devices driving up the insatiable appetites for content and faster speeds, ABI Research estimates that there will be 350 commercial LTE networks forecasted by 4Q 2014,” says Cheri Wong, Research Analyst at ABI Research.

What’s more, ABI explains, LTE-Advanced is now commercial on 20 networks in 14 countries.

“To cope with the demand for higher data rates, FDD/TDD LTE carrier aggregation trials are starting to take place,” the news release from ABI reads. “For example, Ericsson, SingTel, and Qualcomm demonstrated a downlink speed of 260 Mbps in their trial. The first ever TDD-FDD LTE trial took place in February 2014 between Korea Telecom and SK Telecom, with assistance from Nokia Networks. The growing demand for data also emphasizes the need for additional bandwidth to support the massive strain on operator networks which can be alleviated through the refarming of unused spectrum.”

The post 2015 LTE Handset Shipments to Reach 680 Million appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The number of LTE mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide reached the milestone of 250 million in the first quarter of 2014.

That was the announcement ahead of the weekend from global analyst firm Ovum.

Ovum’s latest update to the World Cellular Data Metrics shows that the US is the world’s largest LTE market, with the two leading US operators, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, accounting for 35% of global LTE subscriptions.

“Verizon ended 1Q14 with 47.9 million LTE subscriptions and AT&T ended with 38.4 million,” says senior analyst Thecla Mbongue. “There are seven operators worldwide with more than 10 million total LTE subscriptions; the majority of these operators are either US or Japanese operators. Korea was the most penetrated LTE market in 1Q14, with a rate of 47% of the country’s population.”

“The increased availability and affordability of LTE-capable devices is a major growth driver,” adds Mbongue. “However, deployments and usage are still at an early stage globally, except for North America, where LTE represented over one-third of mobile broadband usage in 1Q14. In emerging markets, where prepaid is dominant and handset subsidies less frequent, LTE take-up is slow as coverage is limited and operators prioritize the high-end and business segments.”

The post LTE Subscriptions Reach Milestone appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

For now, the ultra-fast cellular network has been launched in 17 new markets across the United States.

According to details provided to MMW from Sprint, the new locations include:

1. Eureka/Arcata/Fortuna, CA
2. Redding, CA
3. Bethesda, MD
4. Dubuque, IA
5. Danville, IL
6. Marion/Herrin, IL
7. Mt. Vernon, IL
8. Hopkinsville, KY
9. Rochester, MN
10. Hattiesburg, MS
11. Auburn, NY
12. Buffalo, NY
13. Utica, NY
14. Bloomsburg/Berwick, PA
15. Indiana, PA
16. Pittsburgh, PA
17. Eau Claire, WI

Although Sprint still lags behind Verizon and AT&T in the overall reach of 4G LTE coverage, Sprint is catching up surprisingly fast.

To check out the complete list of 4G LTE-supported locations from Sprint, click here.

The post Sprint Activates More 4G LTE Markets Across the U.S. appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

But that’s about to change for these components, which enable mobile users to enjoy up to 150 Mbps bandwidth.

New insight from ABI Research indicates that key chipset suppliers are stretching their muscles for next-generation basebands that will enable speeds of up to 300 Mbps, namely Cat6 chips.

New findings from ABI Research indicate that cumulative shipments of Cat6 chips targeting smartphones are expected to exceed 700 million by the end of 2019.

“Although a number of chipset suppliers have announced their Cat6 basebands, mobile operators are not yet launching commercial networks that will allow users to enjoy mobile broadband speeds exceeding 150Mbps. An exception to this is SK Telecom which recently launched an LTE-Advanced service, offering speeds up to 225 Mbps,” Malik Saadi, practice director at ABI Research, said in a provided statement.

The post Shipments of Powerful Smartphone Modems to Top 700M by 2019 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.