Accessing the around 540 MHz of unlicensed WiFi spectrum is one option the German operator has been exploring. Last year it conducted tests in Hamburg and Rotterdam by rolling out "hot zones" that allowed users to access WiFi as an alternative to 3G or LTE.
The results appear to have come as something of a surprise to the operator. When WiFi was switched on, the impact on cellular traffic was practically non-existent. In fact, Siebert noted that cellular traffic actually increased in some cases.
In order to find out why, Deutsche Telekom carried out a "deep dive" analysis of the results and discovered two key things. First, the availability of WiFi "attracts" additional data use as it causes people to behave differently. The knowledge that WiFi is available gives them more confidence that data limits will not be exceeded.
Second, applications and devices also behave differently when WiFi is available, and this is generally due to policies in applications that instruct them to perform only where WiFi is available.
Siebert said Deutsche Telekom will do further studies, and stressed that the operator very much regards WiFi as a complementary technology to 3G and LTE. However, "can WiFi fulfil this promise of relieving cellular networks?" he asked. "That is not shown here. WiFi is not the solution for offload, but it has other interesting features."
Indeed, Deutsche Telekom last year teamed up with crowdsourced WiFi provider Fon to offer the new service WLan To Go. It was reported at the time that Deutsche Telekom already had around 12,000 WiFi hotspots in Germany.
via WiFiNovation | Scoop.it
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire