Wi-Fi a simple and efficient way for offloading data traffic in mobile networks

Mobile data traffic is significantly increased year by year due to a number of factors including new smart devices, new applications such as M2M, the so-called “always-on” applications and services etc. In addition the recent studies tell us that the forecasts for mobile data traffic in near future will be tenfold higher, while the revenue for this market is expected to be increased only twofold. This trend raised a number of challenges for the mobile network operators (MNOs) in the world and in our region. Different technical and commercial solutions are discussed and developed and / or under developing. The first idea how to cope with high data traffic is to increase the network capacities. Even this is a direct traditional way as a technical solution it is too expensive and time consuming. Alternative ways to cope with data traffic in order to satisfy consumer demand and to keep key performance indicators are under developing. Some solutions in place are linked with traffic management tools such as data optimization, throttling, filtering, caching, video compression etc. In addition, new pricing policies and the adoption of the appropriate business models in new era of mobile data traffic are in the process. On top of the ways mentioned above or alternatively, Wi-Fi is considered as a simple way of data traffic off-load in mobile networks. In this article, we will identify the positive aspects of Wi-Fi offload versus other traffic management tools and draw some conclusions. We will give some recommendations how MNOs improve the situation for high data traffic through Wi-Fi offload solution, how Wi-Fi offload is related with other commercial aspects and quality of service in order to meet the customer satisfaction