Over the next five years, data traffic will increase by 1 000 times. To cater to this increase, there needs to be 10 times the spectrum, 10 times the base stations and 10 times the performance.
"Mobile operators can no longer do this alone and are starting to realise that WiFi is a big operator in this space," said Greg de Chasteauneuf, innovation and technology manager for enterprise mobility at Internet Solutions, at the brand's Internetix conference, in Johannesburg, this week.
"From a capacity planning perspective, it makes sense to be able to offload excess data that is congesting licensed spectrum onto an unlicensed medium to give much better throughput and capacity at an improved speed."
According to De Chasteauneuf, 70% of the data consumed on smartphones originates from WiFi networks, which is understandable as most modern mobile devices have WiFi capability. He described seamless, uninterrupted connectivity as a "heterogeneous network" that allows users to move from location to location without ever losing their Internet connection. For De Chasteauneuf, WiFi is part of this heterogeneous utopia.
He noted that WiFi networks are not without their problems, including slow speeds, complicated login issues and security. "If we, as an industry, are going to move into this heterogeneous network environment that uses WiFi as a complementing technology, we are going to have to solve some of these problems," he said. "To me, it needs to be as easy as switching on your phone and having that access immediately."
He noted that there are groups of people who are collaborating to accelerate the WiFi ecosystem, mentioning Hotspot 2.0 as an aid to this complexity dilemma. Hotspot 2.0 uses a device's IMEI number and SIM-based USSID authentication to allow users to login and out at will, and is already supported by Apple's iOS 7.0 and various Samsung Galaxy smartphones. "WiFi has brought us the ability to connect so many different devices, and the technology is only getting better," he said, adding that the "everything network" opens various different doors for society.
"All this will be in vain if IT experts and technologists are not able to simplify the complexity of all of these moving parts," he concluded. "It needs to be as simple as reading the time on a watch, and as universal as that interface that we have all become so accustomed to."
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