Wireless bandwidth shrinking fast

As a rule, people in marketing have sunny, optimistic viewpoints. After chatting with Michael Manzo about the impending potential bottlenecks faced by wireless data providers, you'd think he was downright gloomy.

Manzo is the chief marketing officer for Openet Telecom Inc. of Dublin, Ireland, which provides software to telecom carriers. He posits that a bandwidth crisis is nigh.

"Even the new spectrum they just bought will not scar the surface of the bandwidth service providers need," he contends.

He was referring to the auction completed back in March by the Federal Communications Commission for the 700 MHz spectrum. While acknowledging it might help a bit, it won't for long. Why? Blame Apple for its iPhone coupled with mobile data users insatiable appetite for P2P activity in places like FaceBook and, of course, the streaming videos from Web sites like YouTube.

Because Openet's FusionWorks software is used in most telco operations, Manzo says he's been privy to some scary internal statistics from service providers. One of the most frightening is that for most wireless carriers, 1% of the mobile users consume between 40-65% of the network bandwidth for their data downloads. Furthermore, data transactions are doubling about every six months, he claims.

You don't have to be a math wiz to know that if that data-hungry population doubles or triples (and it will), your call home from the grocery store about whether to buy salted or unsalted butter will be (unbuttered) toast.

So, if even new bandwidth doesn't solve the problem, how can CIOs assure that their users will be able to make calls and get data on their smartphones?

According to Manzo, the best way will be to use service providers who can offer tiered data plans with levels of quality of service (QoS). He says that software like FusionWorks can be used to instantly assess a variety of factors about a user's service request, rate plan, QoS requirements and other conditions before beginning a download. For consumers wanting to see the latest Hollywood star's drunken gaffe on YouTube, but who have a low-rate plan, they will get pushed to the back of the bandwidth bus while corporate users with QoS service-level agreements get to ride up front.

He even suggests that in the near future carriers will be able to offer that consumer an on-the-fly, pay-by-the-gulp services for a specific data session. (Maybe that YouTube video of celebrity tomfoolery is worth a couple bucks for instant gratification.) Plus, they will be able to bill for specific data services, so that it might cost more for P2P than streaming video. Or vice versa.

Manzo says Openet will cash in on those new capabilities with its FusionWorks tools. He's probably saving his optimism for when those orders come rolling in.