CTIA Conference , San Diego — AT&T Wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega bemoaned the disproportionate wireless bandwidth usage of iPhone users in a lecture to radio industry professionals here today , and hinted at an unpleasant way of dealing with the problem .
De la Vega spend his first 11 slides talk about the virtues of the U.S. wireless industriousness versus the balance of the world , and of the timbre and popularity of AT&T ’s 3 K wireless web and services in fussy . He said such a vivacious market needed no additional regulation from the FCC .
De la Vega talked about the enormous growth in demand for wireless broadband servicing in the US , and about theimmediate needto exempt up more wireless spectrum to lodge that growth .
Butspectrum is hard to come bythese mean solar day , and , as De la Vega point out , even if young chunks of spectrum could be reallocated quickly , it still take a few years to build the meshwork that use that spectrum .
Meanwhile need for mobile broadband rocket upward among wireless users . De la Vega cited research showing that demand for wireless broadband has grow 5,000 times in the last three class . That development as brusquely expected to accelerate in the coming years .
But all that data usage is not evenly spread across AT&T ’s wireless client base , De la Vega say — far from it . He cited AT&T inquiry indicate that just 3 pct ofAT&T ’s smartphone customers[read iPhone users ] expend 40 percent of all smartphone data point , that they consume 13 time the data of “ the average smartphone customer , ” yet represent less than 1 per centum of AT&T ’s total postpaid client nucleotide .
freehanded problem — but AT&T management should have seen this coming a twelvemonth ago . Or maybe they did , but getting Wall Street to buy into the idea of fast-growing and costly internet climb is like tear tooth without anesthetic — oodles of screaming .
So in the absence of raw spectrum and new , quicker 4 G electronic internet , what does AT&T intend to do about the growing demand in the skinny term ?
Without the proper direction of these net , De la Vega say , regular data user will be “ crowd out ” by the little routine of user [ take iPhone users ] who use massive amounts of data point .
“ We have to manage the web to make indisputable that the few can not herd out the many , ” De la Vega stay . He said the words “ crowd out ” at least five time in that part of his keynote reference .
But what exactly does De la Vega entail by “ proper management ” ? That kind of talk reminds me of Comcast ’s much - maligned strategy ofthrottling down the bandwidthallowance of users who routinely download large torrent single file .
In the face of exploding data service need and scarce wireless spectrum , does AT&T intend to quietly begin rationing the data usage of bandwidth hogs like the iPhone ? Will AT&T begin to quiet “ manage ” the continuance and speed of my 3 G link establish on how much data point I ’ve used in a given daylight , or on the type of content or service I ’m using the bandwidth to get at ?
Of course nobody outside AT&T knows exactly what the company has in mind . But if De la Vega ’s number are right , AT&T will be forced to do something , and I got the impression that De la Vega was casually introducing the “ rationing ” concept to the wireless community today .
AT&T’sexclusive deal with Appleto deal the iPhone has made it a top - shelf wireless supplier , but that blessing could become a curse if the AT&T 3 deoxyguanosine monophosphate networkcan’t keep upwith the tumid bandwidth appetency of the popular equipment .
