Mobile operators are often overwhelmed by the need to earn money and maintain the performance of their wireless networks. To earn more money, they have to attract more subscribers and get more revenue. But getting more subscribers also means they’d have to service more users for each given area. This puts them in a situation where they have to spend more capital to earn more revenues.
Fortunately, technological breakthroughs in network cellular equipment, data analytics, network operations software, and virtualization tools, would now let them have the best of both worlds. They can increase capacity and earn more money. If you want to know more information about the various new technologies that you can adopt and deploy, you might want to check out your options according to Syniverse and other similar sites.
Here are some tips on how mobile operators can further improve the performance and profitability of their networks.
1. Shift To Small Cell Network Technology
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One of the first things mobile operators should look into is to shift to small cell network technology. Shifting to small-cell networks is an important step that will enable mobile operators to adopt and use next-generation technologies.
Most mobile networks have expansive cell networks in their existing infrastructure. However, these expansive cells have limited capacity. Network performance can affect their capacity to provide high-speed internet to their subscribers. When a problem arises, which affects only a small area within a specific cell, network operators have to enhance the capacity and coverage of the whole cell. This includes parts of the cell that provide good coverage for their users.
But wireless operators may now set up and operate networks consisting of high-capacity cells in small areas. These small cells work even in areas with high-density user populations. This has been made possible only recently with breakthroughs in cell technology.
2. Look Into Next Generation Technologies
The added advantage is that it doesn’t cost that much to upgrade small cell networks as compared to large cell networks. The equipment and analytical tools that can be used to evaluate network operations have also become less expensive yet more sophisticated. There are new kinds of equipment that can enable operators to see how cell resources and infrastructure can be maximized.
Mobile operators should consider looking into next-generation technologies for their business. In the area of continuous improvement (CI), for instance, they might want to consider applying analytics to their network performance evaluation studies. This would enable them to clearly see which parts of their network aren’t performing well or which ones have low capacity so they can deploy more capital and resources to that part of the network.
3. Network Technology And Analytics
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With the advent of 5G network technology, mobile operators now have a greater capacity to provide service to a greater number of users and customers in any given area. This is expected to accelerate even further when they’ve optimized the full capabilities of 5G.
Mobile operators can also use advanced analytics to find out the best way they can invest in additional infrastructure in their networks that will also result in the most value for their business and revenue. Network usage, for example, is a potentially rich resource for data analytics.
They can mine this data to know how their subscribers use their mobile phones. This database contains the location and duration of usage, and even the services and functionalities used. The precision of this data would allow them to detect patterns of how subscribers use phones within areas as small as five-by-five square meters.
4. Focus Investments On Creating Value
Mobile operators can get powerful insights from the analysis and mapping of their subscriber usage attributes. They’ll know the places and times where peak overloads happen. They can set up their networks in such a way that areas, where frequent overloads happen, are prioritized for upgrades.
They can further prioritize those areas where their top-paying subscribers are clustered to further improve customer satisfaction and experience. This will enable mobile operators to make the most of their investments in 5G network technology. They can focus capital expenditure on areas that will most likely contribute to their bottom line.
From advanced analytics, network operators can create prediction models. They’ll be able to figure out whether additional investments won’t be used by their top-paying subscribers. Such investments would only result in diminishing returns. In other words, they can use analytics to map out the exact areas where they don’t need to upgrade their network performance any further.
Analytics can also be used to identify cells where users won’t be using excess capacity or surplus service even if network performance is upgraded. The result is that they’ll know which investments would yield more value and increase revenue, and which ones would merely improve network performance but not necessarily improve their bottom line.
5. Use Software To Improve Performance And Create Revenues
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Mobile operators can also invest in software applications that would enable them to optimize the use and performance of existing or newly-acquired hardware and technology. For example, there are new applications that could manage video data and compress them. These methods would take up less storage space and allow them to free up capacity for each network cell.
This would also enable mobile operators to multiply their capacity to provide video streaming up to ten times more subscribers in any given area. The result is that they can earn more from their network capacity with the additional video-streaming subscribers.
Mobile operators can also consider adopting software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) to manage their network operations and performance monitoring. These two key technological advancements enable wireless operators to control their networks and provision changes from their Network Operations Center (NOC). They don’t have to send crew members to the field to do these tasks, thus bringing down operational and maintenance costs.
Operators can save up to 40% in capital expenditure if they adopt these new software technologies. Industry analysts estimate that these changes will bring down their operating expenses to around 10%.
Conclusion
Mobile operators have tried to overcome the challenge of maintaining high network performance while increasing revenues at the same time. To do that, they would have to spend more on capital expenditure to increase performance and capacity. They would also have to spend more money on operating expenses to maintain network performance and keep users happy. Fortunately, technological advances have now enabled mobile operators to break through this problem and increase earnings.
