Mobile Network Complexity Set to Peak in 2013

London, October 31, 2012 The biggest challenge facing mobile operators in 2013 will be surviving the complexity of their networks, as exponential growth in data demand drives the deployment of LTE and small cells to bolster existing 2G and 3G networks, according to Actix. Using insights from over 400 mobile operator customers, Actix predicts that a lack of seamless integration between an increasing number of technologies, sites and cell sizes will significantly raise costs and impact customer experience.

In 2013, over 150 mobile operators will roll out LTE and the number of small cells is set to overtake macro cells, as networks are expanded with new access technologies. This will result in the average mobile operator network comprising four access technologies (2G, 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi), typically from a minimum of two vendors, with an increasing number of sites and multiple cell sizes, including macro, pico, metro, residential femto and enterprise femto.

According to Bill McHale, CEO at Actix, the companys on-going investment into HetNet capability reflects where the industry is going: This new paradigm will severely stretch operators existing tools, processes and people to breaking point and it is no longer viable to manually stitch together heterogeneous networks or manage technologies in silos. To ensure a seamless customer experience operators will need to scale out their activities through more effective use of customer insight and network analytics and multi-technology optimization. With LTE services rolling out and more tablets entering the market operators need to get this right, or risk losing subscribers.

Actix is already assisting many mobile operators in understanding the complexity of their networks, to avoid issues such as using the wrong technology in the wrong places to deliver capacity, and dropped calls resulting in poor handovers between LTE, 3G and 2G.