Wireless operators are using data caps to defend profit margins, they're seeing a sharp rise in tablet usage, and they expect capital spending on 4G networks to grow more than 10 percent in the next three years. That's what we learned from a recent survey of mobile operators on their views about mobile device usage and network spending.
We've excerpted this survey, conducted in October by Heavy Reading and InformationWeek with results from 60 mobile operators and 230 business technology professionals, to graphically show just the results from mobile operators for this article.
Click on the questions below to find out what mobile operators said in response to the following questions:
I know from talking to Sprint executives last year that they were worried about tablets congesting coverage at a specific cellsite because just a couple of users could pull down A LOT of video over the air. You'll notice that tablets and laptops aren't covered by Sprint's unlimited plan.
Yes, i noticed that. I think the inherent limitation of what you can do on smartphones sort of sets an automatic data cap, especially if you're not tethering to a larger device. Does that sound reasonable or am I assuming that small screen size = not as much data as most people think?
I don't know if I buy the argument that data caps help provide a better quality of experience for all on the network. Especially on LTE networks, they're hardly crowded at the moment -- even after the iPhone 5. Why risk discouraging usage when folks are just getting used to LTE speeds?
It does indeed. I was surprised at the size and clarity of those screens when I played with them at the AT&T store the other day. Before that I had only seen the Galaxy Note by itself. It definitely makes a difference when you can see how it compares to the Lumia and other similar phones.
Yeah, and in a simplistic fashion, a bigger screen means more data down. Of course, carriers can get clever with compression, in fact they will need to, I suspect, in 2013 and beyond.
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Survey: Mobile Data Caps Matter
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