Cellular-network congestion: What might help

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Cellular-network congestion: What might help

Jun 10, 2009 Technology

Cell tower streaming content network overload

The increased streaming of content onto mobile phones is threatening to overload networks.
[ Photo courtesy of Jeff Kubina ]

The rising availability of video-recording capability and of applications that stream content on 3G cellular networks—like the music services Pandora and Slacker—are making smart phones more versatile and more fun. But they’re also threatening to overload those networks, creating the possibility of interrupted streams or costly and bothersome data limits on 3G service.

A panel of industry experts on smart phones at a Consumer Electronics Association trade event today in New York discussed ways they think a 3G logjam might be averted. Some of the developments the panel expected—some of which they said would also improve the consumer experience of using smart phone apps:

More side-loading of content. Loading content—say, several hours worth of music from a streaming service—onto a phone via your computer would reduce the load on the network, panelists said, and eliminate the dependence on uninterrupted network availability to enjoy, say, uninterrupted music.

Time-shifting of content. Demands on networks are lower at certain times—say, at night. Yet few phone applications now provide for content to be automatically downloaded to phones at that time, as some DVRs do with programming updates, for example. Sending and storing requested content—say, the latest edition of a favorite TV show—to phones in the wee hours would not only reduce network load, said panelists. It would also allow content to be there when people need it, as with a DVR.

More use of alternative networks. Many, though not all, sophisticated phones will switch to receiving content via WiFi networks, where available, rather than continuing to draw on generally slower and more congested cellular data networks. Some of those WiFi hotspots are operated by the cellular carriers themselves. Greater availability of such hotspots, and inclination by phones to switch to them, is another way to minimize 3G loading and congestion, said the panel.

The panel said so-called 4G networks—next-generation technology that essentially creates broad coverage areas with WiFi-like connection speeds—do not promise an immediate solution to the network crunch. Such networks are years away from completion, they cautioned.

Also promising, panelists at several sessions agreed, is the arrival of TV signals beamed to mobile devices, which offer an alternative to the services offered by the cell phone carriers over their data networks. But while some stations have begun such free mobile-TV broadcasts, you can’t yet buy phones or other devices equipped to receive them—though they are on the way (more soon on those developments).

Meantime, the apps and capabilities for smart phones continue to multiply, and network limitations are already inhibiting the widespread rollout of some features, like live face-to-face video calling between cell phones. Asked about when that capability might become mainstream, rather than a niche activity, some panelists predicted a bandwidth disaster were it to be widely used on today’s cellular networks. —Paul Reynolds.

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