There is a very simple reason why mobile service providers, and coming fifth generation mobile networks, want to enable access from any available network--including unlicensed and shared spectrum.
They must do so if they are to have any hope of meeting expected user bandwidth demand.
Consider that, compared to voice, video consumes an order, up to two orders more bandwidth. And that is before the impact of higher-definition video formats.
Growing consumption of video entertainment content is the driver. Across North America, real-time entertainment is the most popular mobile traffic category, and video is the most bandwidth-intensive of applications.
At peak hours, video entertainment represents as much as 40 percent of all downstream traffic, according to Sandvine. In Europe, video entertainment represents 36 percent of total downstream bandwidth consumption.
And as video demand shifts from linear formats to on-demand formats, the amount of video bandwidth consumed will grow, as demand essentially is displaced from fixed networks to mobile networks, and from multicast to unicast delivery.
The other salient fact is that, going forward, there will be less licensed spectrum made available, and much more license-exempt spectrum. The precise mix is not clear, yet. But the trend seems clear enough.
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