Wi-Fi speeds in the 3G era were twice as fast, encouraging users to switch to Wi-Fi for experience reasons. These days, 4G is faster than Wi-Fi, so offload really has come to make sense to save on mobile data usage charges. But with the reemergence of unlimited plans in the U.S. market, cost is not an issue. Without a cost driver or an experience driver, it is going to make less sense to offload ot Wi-Fi, at least in some markets.
The caveat is that global averages do not always line up with local experience, speed and cost. So there will still be markets where offload to Wi-Fi will still make sense.
The point is that we might already have passed the peak of the "offload" era.
One analysis of 4G mobile and Wi-Fi speeds at U.S. airports shows that, in general, though not always, 4G is faster than Wi-Fi.
In the 5G era, that trend is likely to solidify. Roughly speaking, mobile data capacity has grown by an order of magnitude (10 times) with each generation of mobile networks. In the 5G era, speeds will increase by one or two orders of magnitude.
No comments:
Post a Comment