By Sudeep Gupta
Starbucks announced yesterday that they will be providing free WiFi access to customers in all their US locations, with service provided by AT&T. Although WiFi never really succeeded as a replacement for cellular, operators are finding that it’s important to help offload the cellular network.
The reason is cellular networks were originally designed for delivering voice. They had large macrocells providing coverage across miles of area. The networks incorporated microcells and picocells in capacity-congested areas that would reduce the coverage area to a half-mile or even to a city block. However, the explosion of data means that operators have to rethink their networks again.
Data is generally an indoor technology. People play network games or surf the web on their Android phones when they’re waiting in line at the store. They’re watching videos or posting on FaceBook on their iPhones when they’re killing time in a waiting room. Trying to provide high data rates indoors with large macrocells is very expensive and difficult. Operators are turning to technologies such as femtocells installed in homes and distributed antenna systems (DAS) to support indoor data communications to support the growing data requirements.
The result is operators are looking towards alternatives to the large towers they traditionally built and towards techologies that allow for more concentrated coverage and capacity solutions.
