3G -> 3G needs improved uplinks to meet symmetrical demand 

Cellcos are missing out on new revenue opportunities by underestimating the value of uplink-based symmetrical data services, according to the leader of a pre-congress workshop held Monday ahead of this week’s 3G World Congress and Exhibition.

“The cellular industry has historically been driven by demand for symmetrical services like voice and SMS,” said Geoff Varrall, director of UK-based RTT Programmes and leader of the workshop on UMTS/HSDPA network planning.

“But the focus for 3G has been on asymmetrical downlinks, and that’s wrong, because it doesn’t map to this shift to symmetrical traffic we’re seeing everywhere else.”

Speaking to telecomasia.net following the workshop, Varrall said that despite the increased ability of handsets to create and store content, the cellular industry is underestimating the opportunity presented by uplink-based services.

With handsets now coming out with cameras in the 4- to 6-megapixel range and storage capabilities to match, new possibilities abound with “real-time still imaging” that could allow users to post camera pics on a blog or a photo album site, Varrall said.

“What operators really need to do is figure out how to encourage users to upload images and make money, because you don’t make a dime out of images that remain stored on a Memory Stick,” Varrall said.

Other service opportunities taking advantage of imaging and symmetrical services include content management services such as storage services, indexing and search, as well as barcode scanning functions. Operators could also add more value to services like mobile TV and visual radio by allowing users to submit their own content that could be posted on programs in the same way that SMS messages are posted on live music video shows, for example.

The problem, said Varrall, is that the industry in general has been too focused on 3G’s downlink capabilities that it hasn’t spent enough time developing the uplink to handle that kind of traffic, though he adds there has been a “generic but slow realization” that current uplinks are too constrained to generate much revenue. Varrall advised workshop participants to think in terms of “memory bandwidth” when planning their uplink bandwidth links.

Interestingly, despite the two-way video capabilities of 3G handsets, Varrall said video is unlikely to be as big a driver of new service revenues as still imaging.

“Video is okay if it’s consistent – even if the quality is poor, users can deal with consistent poor quality better than they can deal with quality that alternates between good and poor,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s the kind of video service they’re getting with 3G at the moment because there are so many different network layers to manage in order to deliver that consistency. That’s the Achilles heel of 3G video.”