The need for more air

Submit

Wireless spectrum is being fought over by mobile providers, TV networks, emergency services and a myriad of other users.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has released the latest version of its five-year spectrum outlook and is calling on the industry for submissions to help manage the allocation of spectrum for future use by mobile providers and smart infrastructure.

So how much spectrum will we need? We know data-hungry laptops and iPads have placed greater demand on mobile networks; can we expect this trend to continue? What else can mobile providers do to ensure there's equilibrium between supply and demand, other than, of course, putting the price up?

In this week's Twisted Wire I discuss the future demands for wireless networks with:

Hugh Bradlow, chief technology officer at Telstra;
Shara Evans, Market Clarity CEO; and
Warren Chaisatien, strategic marketing manager at Ericsson

Bradlow suggests differentiated classes of service on mobile networks will be inevitable at some point. Tell us what you think — how soon is this likely to happen?

Leave a comment below or call and leave a message, on this or any other topic, on 02 9304 5198.

Running time: 25 minutes, 11 seconds

Talkback

"Bradlow suggests differentiated classes of service on mobile networks will be inevitable at some point. Tell us what you think — how soon is this likely to happen?"

Optus already do it.
So, it's likely to happen... Over a year ago.

myne March 10th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

Really? Are you telling me Optus currently prioritises some mobile traffic over others?

phildobbie March 11th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

Absolutely.
You should be able to test this yourself.
Buy a Business Mobile Broadband dongle and a normal residential dongle.
Find a congested tower (anywhere with a bunch of rim cabinets at ~6pm) and compare the latency/speeds. It may not be a huge difference, but it should favour one over the other.
Mobile networks work off of Access Point Names which are essentially the same as WIFI except each tower has hundreds. There are many businesses that buy separate APN's because they are basically the wireless equivalent of a VLAN. Very handy if your business involves many mobile or fixed GPRS/3G devices. Your dongle will be told to connect to a particular APN. Those two services mentioned are on different APN's with different priority.
So it is absolutely possible to provide better service to emergency services dynamically as required.

myne March 11th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

I find it extremely difficult to believe that the "We gonna" (i.e. Optus) prioritise their mobile traffic. Telstra cannot do this at all (and they are the masters of it at the moment with wireless), the only give exception to voice over data which needs to be done in advanced and not on the fly (for capacity).

Putting it to different APNs does not give you a Quality of Service (QoS), which is the 'true' meaning of prioritisation. It only shift the traffic. Just like the Internet, there is no QoS no matter how you try to spin it.

But have heard of all the 'yes men' spin about their network (both fixed and data).

Theguy March 11th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

Agree with the rational for machine2machine comms drive MBB to reach 10.5 million SIOs by 2015.

But the current arrangement of unique plans being attached to individual gadgets or dongles may not be valid by 2015. To meet future customer demand and service expectation, telcos may come out with bucket plans (shared by multiple devices used by a single user) to differentiate.

garytsang March 11th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

Shara made that point in the interview, but I'm not sure it made it into the final edit of the program.

I'm not so sure htough - the Kindle whisper-net approach is an interesting one. Gadget providers tie up deals with networks and include a data allowance in the price of content.

Who knows!

phildobbie March 11th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

Gary,
You might also find people doing what our company is about to do. One data/Phone plan with hotspot for our devices(Telstra Plus plans). Makes management much easier. M2M will be important in our industry in the coming years but they us very little data so I can't see that being a real issue.

People seems to be losing the ability to research before commenting on show like this though. No one has put forward a reason/Driver for this massive increase in data. 1080p video uses 3.514 mpbs in YouTube So what will be the driver of higher speeds or higher downloads then the 250Gb we currently use on ADSL which will be available on wireless with in two years. Telstra are already at $69 for 12gig for wireless. Remember this article! http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/telstra-to-cut-broadband-price-as-customers-drop-off/story-e6frgamo-1225792188381

$99.95 for 25gig! and that was news! 20gig on wireless is on $149.

and this for wireless http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/telstra-dials-up-wireless-price-cuts-20100115-mblw.html

It was only a year ago!! http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz-tech/telstra-dials-up-wireless-price-cuts-20100115-mblw.html

" It has also cut the price of its existing 5GB, $89.95 a month plan to $79.95 and tacked on an extra 1GB." In a year they added another 1Gb and the price in now $39.95.

ChrisS9 March 11th, 2011

Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

ZDNet Australia Live

Q&A of the Week: 'The current state of the cybercrime ecosystem' featuring Mikko Hypponen http://t.co/6lUYFs0X

14 minutes ago by teksquisite on twitter, retweet

You say that the golden age of cyber crime will be over by 2014/2015. I would like to differ. I believe that cyber criminals are getting ...

19 minutes ago by Staden on Cybercrime golden age over in two years?

Before accusing me of fudging the figures, that was the percentage in April, the latest available. It seems that as the advantage of the ...

3 hours ago by GregoryB1 on NBN FUD: will Abbott ever learn?

Currently about 50% of connections are at the 100Mb/s rate.
As a consequence, ARPU is significantly higher than the projected figures.

3 hours ago by GregoryB1 on NBN FUD: will Abbott ever learn?

Currently about 50% of connections are at the 100Mb/s rate.
As a consequence, ARPU is significantly higher than the projected figures.

3 hours ago by GregoryB1 on NBN FUD: will Abbott ever learn?

Wireless currently carries less than 2% of total internet data traffic. Simply to carry the existing traffic, we would need 50 times the ...

4 hours ago by GregoryB1 on Blowing the digital dividend on wireless NBN

The stupidest part about a wireless solution for the burbs is that it will actually cost more to put an antenna on the roof to get the si...

4 hours ago by GregoryB1 on Blowing the digital dividend on wireless NBN

The problem is not range of the cell in the urban areas where Turnbull wants LTE instead of fibre, it is the number of users. In urban ar...

4 hours ago by GregoryB1 on Blowing the digital dividend on wireless NBN

After the Second World War, the pursuit of pleasure domains the entire world atmosphere, Lancel (Lancel) to adapt rapidly into the demand...

5 hours ago by PokArrackpask on Spam sees Westnet blocked by BigPond

RT @DellEnterprise: Dell Secureworks talks with ZDNet about Android's biggest #security flaws - http://t.co/LSFLQVFq #infosec

5 hours ago by ostejskal on twitter, retweet

NBN users opt for 100Mbps: Customers are picking the top fibre plan that is available on the National Broadband ... http://t.co/sjtFSU3g

6 hours ago by ozspeedtest on twitter, retweet

"Customers are picking the top fibre plan that is available on the National Broadband Network (NBN), more than a... http://t.co/M3P24Htn

6 hours ago by redditau on twitter, retweet

Another thing I found so misleading here is the step on how you assume to make the USB bootable . (The NTLDR needs to be renamed to USBNT...

7 hours ago by WindowsAnalyzer on Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive

You can also use the help of these links, just incase your stuff failed, I probably got Windows build by using the Pebuilder as per the i...

7 hours ago by WindowsAnalyzer on Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive

RT @CorrieB: An iPad for every child: Inevitable or impossible? http://t.co/I7uS8l9s Thx to @timbuckteeth for this; http://t.co/jxkqIRIp

8 hours ago by njdixpin on twitter, retweet

RT @MADinMelbourne: roxon "will enable more families to access credit" @MLolderandwiser: Privacy Act amendments http://t.co/Mv4c7PC2 via @zdnetaustralia

9 hours ago by GreenUpOz on twitter, retweet