The popularity and rapid growth of mobile-data services presents a potential revenue driver for mobile operators fighting rapidly declining average revenue per user (ARPU) for voice services. Mobile-data traffic volumes are sure to continue to grow at a breakneck pace, with Cisco predicting a compound annual growth rate for this traffic of 92 percent from 2010 to 2015. Unfortunately, without the right management approach, revenues from mobile data services cannot be counted on to do the same. Mobile operators must find ways to reduce backhaul operating expense (opex) to increase data-services revenue margins.

To realize the promise that growth in mobile-data services offers, operators are turning to Carrier Ethernet technology as the transport medium of choice for cost-effectively handling data traffic. Deploying an Ethernet-based backhaul network can drive down the “per-bit” cost of transporting data traffic as well as future-proofing for continually evolving mobile technologies.

Transitioning to an IP/MPLS-based mobile-backhaul plan eliminates the data-transfer bottleneck of such traditional backhaul technologies as TDM. This bottleneck otherwise would stand in the way of competitively offering mobile broadband or the burgeoning possibilities for value-added content on top of that mobile broadband, like mobile TV or video on demand.

Facing The “Revenue Crunch” 

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) face significant challenges compared to their traditional business models built upon selling voice and data services over dedicated-circuit networks. Market saturation of these services and a global economic recession has caused overall revenue levels to flatten or decrease altogether. At the same time, demand for increased bandwidth and data services that support complex performance requirements has grown rapidly.  This has been driven by the explosion of traffic from bandwidth hungry enterprises, virtualized data centers, video and telepresence services, residential broadband, and of course mobile backhaul traffic – all of which are demanding a more cost-effective, scalable, and tailored set of data and voice services.