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Feb. 9, 2010

FCC officials Phil Bellaria and John Leibovitz, director of scenario planning for the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative and deputy chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, respectively, say the increased traffic that could be generated by the iPad is probably reminiscent of the huge congestion that first-generation Internet dialup users experienced following AOL's 1996 decision to allow unlimited Web access.

Yes, the FCC has many reasons to be worried. But wait, there's more...

For many months now, wireless users had trouble connecting and, once they did connect, they experienced frequent service outages, network sluggishness, etc."

Although Leibovitz and Bellaria didn't name AT&T specifically, the iPad's 3G connectivity is currently only available on AT&T's network. So-- that's pretty easy to figure out...

"With the iPad pointing to even greater and increased demand for mobile broadband on the near horizon, we must ensure that network congestion doesn't choke off a vital service that wireless consumers clearly find appealing or frustrate mobile broadband's ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy," said Bellaria and Leibovitz."

Recently, AT&T has come under heavy criticism for its slow and sluggish network performance, which appears to have been severely hampered by massive network traffic linked to the data-intensive iPhone.

The wireless carrier recently completed wide-scale network upgrades to HSPA 7.2 to address traffic concerns.

The officials said that wireless service operators will only be able to deal with future congestion issues if they have adequate spectrum, referring to 4G technology and LTE.

"Reaching an always-on wireless broadband future means that mobile spectrum can no longer remain attached solely to uses deemed just valuable 15 years ago," they said.

"The broadband plan will suggest ways of moving more spectrum into high value uses, such as broadband access, to help ensure that we don't get stuck in 1996-style dialup congestion when too many users all tried logging in to the network all at the same time."

In an effort to better respond to these and other valid concerns, Juniper Networks will soon unveil three mobility solutions under its Project Falcon initiative designed to allow wireless carriers to better optimize network traffic on their current infrastructure and to provide a smoother path for efficiently migrating from 3G to 4G technology.

Juniper's new solutions are called Traffic Direct™, Media Flow™ and Mobile Core Evolution™ and they've already caught the attention of more than a few observers in the wireless industry.

The network infrastructure provider added that a study by research firm IDC validated its claims that the solution would lower a mobile carrier’s total cost of ownership by up to 70 percent in some cases.

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Source: The Federal Communications Commission.