Camiant, which provides policy control and application assurance technology, and Omnitele, an international telecoms consultancy, have released the findings of a study that show that mobile broadband operators can realize upwards of 20% savings in their network costs by actively managing mobile broadband congestion. The study found that controlling the bandwidth consumption of certain users solely during peak hours, allows maximum usage of the network by all subscribers when capacity is available, while constraining the need for additional network capacity.
Omnitele tailored their in-depth network cost modelling framework to gauge the cost savings of Camiants Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)-based approach, indicating a substantial reduction in core and radio-access network capacity-related capital and operating expenses.
The cost model factors in market segments, data packages and subscriber counts, as well as the target QoS performance. Other modelling inputs include average monthly data volume for each service offered, and the share of this data volume that falls into the networks busy hours; dimensions for spreading of the total traffic across the sites and cells of the network, including scaling as appropriate for network busy hours; and the nature of the bandwidth controls and which subscribers the controls are applied to
The primary output metrics are:

• Total infrastructure capex and opex, reflecting typical network capacity-related vendor pricing mechanisms.
• The cost of transferring a gigabyte of data for each subscriber type.
• Average traffic related monthly network costs for each subscriber type.

Mobile broadband is the single most promising growth engine in the entire telecommunications industry, says Randy Fuller, Vice President of Business Development at Camiant. However, it is critical for mobile operators to intelligently manage bandwidth consumption, since the cost per bit to deliver traffic is so high relative to fixed broadband networks.  The cost model shines a strong light on this fact, and Camiant is working with the mobile industry to pave a successful way forward.
Pal Zarandy, Principle Consultant at Omnitele, notes that there is clear demand for mobile broadband, but warns that there is a serious risk that costs of future capacity upgrades will outweigh incremental service revenues, unless the future network costs are revealed in time and kept under control. 
Introducing intelligent congestion management is one of the key steps that mobile broadband operators need to take in order to secure their sustainable profitability, while providing subscribers with best possible service. Says Zarandy.
To learn more about Mobile Broadband Congestion Management, you can download the Whitepaper, Opportunity in the Air: Managing Congestion in Mobile Broadband via the Camiant website.