Public Wi-Fi networks have become common in many cities throughout the world, and with the emergence of Wi-Fi 6 and CBRS, unlicensed wireless will be even more available to users. This introduces a golden opportunity for MVNOs and 2nd- and 3rd-tier MNOs for cost savings and quality of service improvement. Wi-Fi offloading enables this by using a connection manager application on a user's devices to seamlessly and automatically connect to available high-quality Wi-Fi networks and then monitoring the quality of that connection over time. This makes Wi-Fi and CBRS critical in the evolution of global networks towards 5G.
As stated in Wefi’s latest white paper, as mobile data capacity demands continue to grow, mobile operators and especially MVNOs are faced with greater competition and stagnant or falling revenue per subscriber. 5G, CBRS, and Wi-Fi 6 will soon be interwoven into our future wireless networks, making it even more important for operators to use an on-device Connectivity Manager to enforce an Always-Best Connected policy and to bridge the divide between consumer demand and network availability. Wefi’s Wi-Fi offload Connection Manager, WeConnect, overcomes this divide as a solution to declining profit margin issues facing MVNOs and 2nd- and 3rd-tier MNOs. It does this by seamlessly offloading cellular data to Wefi’s Amenity Wi-Fi network or other available networks, resulting in a significant increase in quality of experience, while saving operational costs. In addition, Wefi’s own cell quality competitive analysis SaaS tool, WeScore, provides carriers with new business insights for serving their subscribers using GDPR and CCPA-compliant data collected in the offload service process.
“As the industry moves toward 5G, Wi-Fi becomes more important, not less important. Wi-Fi already provides near ubiquitous coverage, 5G performance for both speed and capacity densities, at a fraction of the cost of 5G deployments. Operators must incorporate Wi-Fi as part of their 5G strategy,” says Randall Schwartz, Principal Consultant for Wireless 20|20, in his article Wi-Fi Offload in the 5G Era (wefi.com/offload-whitepaper).
“We’ve really started to see an increase in demand for carriers to move data traffic to Wi-Fi. More than 60% of data connections already happen on Wi-Fi; we’re just making it easier for subscribers to connect. The end result is a better user experience and tremendous savings for the carriers, and the proof is our significant achievement to add four new MVNO carriers to the offload service since January 2019” says Arie Shaham, General Manager of Wefi.
Wefi® is a market leader in Wi-Fi connectivity and offload, mobile data collection, and mobile big data analytics. Our patented WeConnect solution comprises a field proven mobile app connection manager, a mobile data collection SDK, and cloud-based big data analytics backend. Our unique solution helps MNOs ensure the best possible service quality and proactively address issues, and MVNOs in offloading data streams and saving operational costs. Our vast data repository and analytics tools help research companies in creating valuable insights from data coming straight from mobile devices. For more information, visit wefi.com.
