A new survey by Juniper Research has found that notebook computers and e-readers will onload 24 percent of traffic onto data networks by 2016, Cellular-News reports. The prevalence of game consoles, tablets, and smartphones will also increase the load placed on mobile networks, an amount of data reaching over 7,500 petabytes. The figure is due to the increasing prevalence of mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets. Mobile broadband is also increasing penetration around the world…

Smart phones represent a bit of a conundrum for mobile service providers. On one hand, smart phones drive sales of mobile data plans that are the primary source of new revenue at the moment. On the other hand, most consumers do not want to pay full retail prices for the latest devices, preferring service contracts that amortize the cost of a device over time. But that raises service provider operating costs, since the subsidies typically are booked as a “cost of sales.” Such…

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has released its 2012 ICT Market Review & Forecast (MR&F). The MR&F provides the ICT industry's most comprehensive, trusted data review, with forecasts through 2015. Many findings from the report focus on the impact of the growth of smartphones and tablets, cloud-related services and video streaming. These devices and services are driving dramatic traffic surges and demanding increased network infrastructure investment. TIA's…

Internet-generated broadband traffic will increase approximately 50 percent year over year on fixed networks and double on mobile networks.  IDC also notes that fixed and mobile traffic volumes are driven by power users. IDC forecasts that end-user demand for worldwide wireline and mobile broadband traffic will increase from 9,665 petabytes per month in 2010 to 116,539 petabytes per month in 2015, or two orders of magnitude in just five years. Web browsing, peer-to-peer file sharing…

Despite increased activity in the carrier VoIP and IP Multimedia Subsystem equipment market in the fourth quarter, the segment tracked down for the year, according to a new report from Infonetics.   The research company, in its quarterly Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers report attributed the 2 percent slide to poor performance in legacy trunk media gateway and softswitch sales. Analyst Diane Myers said she expects the market to rebound in 2012. "We'll see this…

According to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index, worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 18-fold over the next five years, reaching 10.8 exabytes per month, an annual run rate of 130 exabytes, by 2016. The monthly 130 exabytes is equivalent to consumption of 33 billion DVDs; 4.3 quadrillion MP3 files (music/audio) or 813 quadrillion short message service (SMS) text messages. The number of mobile Internet connected devices will exceed the number of people on earth (2016 world…

As smartphone penetration deepens globally, mobile voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) solutions are becoming increasingly popular – with new findings that reveal mobile VoIP will continue to be on the rise in 2012. According to research firm In-Stat (News - Alert), subscribers to mobile VoIP services will triple – active mobile VoIP subscriber rates will triple in 2011, growing from 9 million in 2010 to 29 million. The key factor behind such a surge in demand for the technology…

It’s time to look ahead to 2012 and be hopeful. Stay cool about the global turmoil. Instead be awed by the extraordinary technology of telecom and its life-changing impact on mobile commerce and payments. The game keeps changing, powered by smartphones, tablets, mobile apps and phone card enhancements. In the next year, wireless services are poised to continue their spectacular growth. A study from Atlantic-ACM indicates that prepaid wireless revenues are likely to grow to $25.3 billion by…

Mobile services are crucial for communications service providers and other business partners in the communications ecosystem because of the growing dominance of mobile revenues. According to Ofcom, mobile service revenues now represent the majority of revenues in many countries.Already above 50 percent, mobile revenues now are approaching 60 percent of total. By some measures, service providers now make nearly as much money from mobile broadband services as they do from fixed broadband. Ofcom…

Global telecom capital investment dipped in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession, as you might expect. But what of the longer-term trend? Some believe telecom capex, on a global basis, will be steady and upward, reflecting growing revenue in many regions. "The near-six percent increase in global telecom carrier capex we expect in 2011 over 2010 is due in part to AT&T’s ramping LTE deployments, HSPA+ upgrades, and investments in WiFi hotspots for traffic offload,” says Infonetics…