AUSTIN, TX — (Marketwire) — 01/09/13 — As smartphones and tablets reach saturation levels in many markets, mobile operators are challenged with meeting the increased demand for mobile data while minimizing capital and operating expenditures. iGR-s own forecasts show an increase in monthly data consumption of more than 15 times between 2011 and 2016.
LTE Broadcast or eMBMS (evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) provides an answer to part of the mobile operators- challenges. Simply put, LTE Broadcast (eMBMS) enables a Single Frequency Network (SFN) broadcast capability within LTE, so that the same content can be sent to a large number of users at the same time, resulting in a more efficient use of network resources than each user requesting the same content and then having the content unicast to each user. eMBMS was originally defined in Release 8 and 9 of the 3GPP standards and has been enhanced in Releases 10 and 11.
iGR-s new white paper, Content for All – The Potential for LTE Broadcast/eMBMS, is available for free and provides an overview of the benefits for a mobile network operator of deploying LTE Broadcast and quantifies the potential impact on the network traffic and associated capital expenditures.
“For mobile network operators that need to increase the capacity of their networks to meet the ever-increasing demand from consumers, LTE Broadcast is one of the tools available,” said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR, a market research consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile industry. “iGR-s network model shows that LTE Broadcast can potentially off-load 12.5 percent of the video data traffic from unicast overall and 15 percent during peak hours in 2016 if deployed across a metro market.”
As iGR-s new paper discusses, LTE Broadcast can be used for distributing content such as live events and media to a wide audience, as well as for background file and software delivery and group information distribution. iGR believes there are several benefits of LTE Broadcast from the mobile network operator-s (MNO) perspective:
No changes required to consumer devices with compatible chipsets and middleware
No hardware changes required to the LTE RAN
Part of the standard LTE ecosystem
Simple business cases and applications
Vendors knowledgeable and able to provide support.
While there are some current concerns and issues, on balance, the MNOs appear to see the fact that the LTE Broadcast ecosystem is already defined, supported and growing as a major benefit.
To estimate the impact of LTE Broadcast on a mobile market, iGR built a detailed model on the use of mobile data and how demand would change with the implementation of LTE Broadcast.
iGR-s model shows that LTE Broadcast can off-load 12.5 percent of the video data traffic from unicast overall and 15 percent during peak hours in 2016. Similarly, iGR-s model shows that LTE Broadcast would off-load 30 percent of the total mobile data network traffic attributed to audio overall and 45 percent during peak hours in 2016.
As a result of the audio and video off-load, iGR-s model shows that LTE Broadcast can off-load up to 11.5 percent of the total daily demand per subscriber and 14.7 percent during the peak hours. The amount of traffic off-loaded to LTE Broadcast is higher in the peak traffic times simply due to the type of content being consumed.
As part of its ongoing wireless and mobile industry research, iGR forecasts the amount of capital expenditure on LTE network equipment — these models have been applied to the LTE Broadcast modeling. For the U.S. mobile operators, the amount of network capacity built in 2016 could be reduced by 9.8 percent if LTE Broadcast were deployed, equivalent to an overall potential saving of $4.21 billion. For the larger operators in the U.S., full deployment of LTE Broadcast could equate savings of $60 to $100 million in 2016 alone. Obviously, the benefits of LTE Broadcast would continue in subsequent years for the MNO.
Additionally, there is also the potential benefit of ARPU from new services that can only be enabled by LTE Broadcast. Just as mobile broadband led to previously unforeseen revenue sources for the MNOs, so the same can be expected with LTE Broadcast.
The new white paper is free and can be downloaded directly from iGR-s website at Alternatively, contact Iain Gillott at (512) 263-5682 or at for additional details.
iGR is a market strategy consultancy focused on the wireless and mobile communications industry. Founded by Iain Gillott, one of the wireless industry-s leading analysts, in late 2000 as iGillottResearch, iGR is now entering its twelfth year of operation. iGR continuously researches emerging and existent technologies, technology industries, and consumer markets. We use our detailed research to offer a range of services to help companies improve their position in the marketplace, clearly define their future direction, and ultimately improve their bottom line.
iGR researches a range of wireless and mobile products and technologies, including: smartphones; tablets; mobile applications; bandwidth demand and use; small cell architectures; DAS; LTE; WiMAX; VoLTE; IMS; NFC; GSM/GPRS/UMTS/HSPA; CDMA 1x/EV-DO; iDEN; SIP; macro-, pico- and femtocells; mobile backhaul; WiFi and WiFi offload; and SIM and UICC.
A more complete profile of the company can be found at .
Contact iGR
Iain Gillott
(512) 263-5682
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