Energy costs represent the third most significant operating expense (OPEX) item for cellular carriers today, and fluctuating energy costs are a significant area of concern for business planners.
The introduction of mobile broadband to the equation means that the energy required per subscriber arising from increasing data uptake will push per-subscriber energy OPEX for cellular solutions past acceptable barriers - unless carriers move from a traditional cellular-only approach to one that integrates WiMAX and Metro Wi-Fi.
"From a pure coverage perspective, WiMAX is twice as energy-cost-effective and metro Wi-Fi is 50 times more energy-cost-effective than WCDMA. When data traffic is factored into the equation, WiMAX can accommodate 11 times today's average data consumption and still be more energy-cost-efficient compared to WCDMA or HSDPA," says Stuart Carlaw, director, wireless research, ABI Research.
According to the recent study by ABI Research, the total energy consumption arising from mobile broadband service delivery is forecast to grow from 42.8 billion kilowatt hours (KWh) in 2005 to 124.4 billion KWh in 2011. The Asia Pacific region will account for the majority of this growth.
