Amdocs research reveals extent of 'bandwidth hog' greed.
The study threw more light on the problem of the data capacity crunch, a major issue for Amdocs and one which saw the firm sponsor a video series about the subject for ME TV.
Key findings of the research also revealed:
* More than 60 per cent of wireless service providers interviewed are experiencing data congestion, with 20 per cent registering severe overload at specific times. Service providers in the Middle East and Africa say this has led to an increase in customer complaints around service quality. Asian and American operators say it is contributing to churn.
* In the Americas and Europe smartphones contribute more than 40 per cent of total data consumption. In Asia, the Middle East and Africa, laptops with mobile broadband is the key driver.
* 75 per cent of providers say quality of service (QOS) design – which ensures a satisfactory customer experience during a voice call or data transfer – has the greatest impact on customer support costs and churn.
* Providers see building out additional network capacity as essential, with 97 per cent of those surveyed stating they intended to roll out Ethernet to alleviate congestion.
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“The capacity crunch is not just a network problem, it’s a widespread commercial and brand issue that wireless service providers need to address in the short and long term,” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs.
“While service providers are adding extra capacity to their networks in the short term, they need to explore policy management solutions to enforce traffic flows and enable premium rate charging. Rigorous engineering of network capacity is critical to ensure customer experience is not compromised and that brand equity is protected.”
