NSN: "Radio capacity can be boosted further by applying QoS differentiation"

A new white paper from Nokia Siemens Networks, "Mobile broadband with HSPA and LTE – capacity and cost aspects" - here - analyzes   mobile broadband networks' radio capacity and suggests ways to improve it.

Deploying QoS is one of the suggested methods for improvement, and is described by NSN as follows: "QoS differentiation can be applied to control the priority of heavy users when they exceed their monthly quota.  Typically, a small percentage (less than 20%) of users takes most of the capacity (more than 80%). "

Another interesting conclusion is "Working on the premise that traffic is never equally distributed between sites – typically during a busy hour 50% of the traffic is carried by 15% of the cells – the majority of cells remain underutilized. Adding more users can in effect lead to a more equal traffic distribution between sites and a more profitable use of available capacity". See also NSN's press release - here.

Note that the article analyses the radio segment of the network - and ignores the backhaul, core and peering links.

Kai Sahala, head of mobile broadband marketing at NSN, told telecomtv.com (here) - "I think we've shown that operators have many opportunities with their business models. Even the business model option of just providing fast mobile broadband can be profitable" responding to a question about profits that can be made from Over-The-Top content providers.