Global mobile data monitoring market to triple by 2020

Over the next five to ten years, data traffic is expected to increase exponentially due to the growing adoption of smartphones globally. This amplified volume of data will place considerable strain on the networks of communication service providers (SPs) and their information management systems, thereby stoking demand for mobile data monitoring systems. Mobile data monitoring solutions are critical tools to improve overall mobile data performance and customer experience, as these can analyse mobile data and optimise the performance of their networks.

Due to the rocketing adoption of smart devices, mobile apps and video are expected to be the most consumed types of data. This growth is unlikely to dip, as social networking traffic and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication continues to rise in popularity. Over the next five years, M2M traffic is expected to outstrip even that of social networking traffic, as connected devices and sensors are anticipated to exceed 50bn units. Currently, SPs are ill equipped to deal with this demand for data.

In addition to the adoption of smart phones, over-the-top (OTT) applications are contributing to the mounting demand for mobile data monitoring solutions. The swelling data traffic is forcing telecomms companies to invest in more secure and complex testing capabilities to match strides with network expansions as well as upgrades in 3G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE).

Consumers are demanding more bandwidth-hungry applications, which require operators to deploy faster transmission links. When mobile users log on to 3G networks, they expect the applications to work seamlessly. Moreover, the information received from these different networks must be correlated.

Although the adoption of LTE has helped achieve the required data rates, there are significant concerns about the quality of voice and data. Companies are hoping to mitigate these issues with the adoption of voice over LTE (VoLTE), an IP-based multimedia system standardised by the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) to maximise international interoperability. VoLTE allows SPs to reduce the cost of delivery, enhance voice service offerings, and combat the service degradation in OTT services such as Skype and Viber.

Overall, SPs’ keenness to provide the highest levels of quality of service and quality of experience is expected to sustain the demand for comprehensive management solutions and proactive monitoring.

Olga Yashkova-Shapiro, Program Manager, Test & Measurement Communications, Frost & Sullivan, comments: "Communications SPs must invest in mobile data monitoring solutions to ensure positive end-user experience and lower customer churn. Already, many SPs have rolled out LTE networks and are exploring other data traffic offload strategies to keep pace with demand. Traditional voice monitoring or service assurance solutions were not designed to analyse voice delivered over a data network. Therefore, the demand for next-generation mobile data monitoring solutions to support VoLTE is expected to increase and more operators are investing in new mobile devices required to support the VoLTE standards.”