With booming growth in data usage placing increased pressure on Chinese cellular operators’ network capacity, the country is engaging in a major rollout of public wireless local area networks (WLANs) to offload data traffic, according to the IHS iSuppli China Electronics Supply Chain Service at information and analysis provider IHS.
By the end of first half of 2011, China’s mobile users reached a total of 906.8 million, up 15.4 percent from the same period in 2010.
Of this total, subscribers to the 2G wireless standard accounted for the majority of users, at 826.3 million, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier. However, 3G users grew much more rapidly, rising by 219.5 percent from a year earlier to reach 80.5 million.
The surge in 3G subscribers able to access mobile Internet services not only is increasing the amount of data being transferred onto wireless networks, but is also placing substantial pressure on operator network capacity and return on investment (ROI). Operators have realized that wireless cellular networks are not likely to be able to keep pace with current levels of mobile data demand.
In response, WLANs are being rolled out in public areas to offload data traffic. WLANs are well-suited for this purpose because of the low cost and fast rollout of its equipment compared to cellular infrastructure gear.
Large-scale WLAN deployments in China began in 2008, and more than 50 WLAN equipment vendors—mostly domestic firms—can be found today. By the end of 2010, China’s three major operators each had entered into more than 20 partnerships with WLAN gear makers, although there is no dominant supplier.
Last year also saw the replacement of conventional autonomous architectures using fat access points (AP) with centralized WLAN architecture featuring access controllers (ACs) and thin APs. Centralized WLAN architecture provides an advantage by giving network administrators a structured and hierarchical mode of control for multiple APs in the enterprise and in public areas. Moreover, WLAN equipment is based on the increasingly popular 802.11n standard, replacing the older 802.11b/g devices.
The switch to centralized WLAN architecture has spurred a flurry of activity among the three Chinese carriers. From June to September 2010, for instance, China Telecom organized a technology trial for centralized WLAN architecture with ACs and thin APs. A total of 33 WLAN suppliers took part in these tests, and 31 were authorized to enter into the second phase of the contract tendering process. The company closed its 2010 WLAN central bids in February 2011, selecting 17 WLAN partners. Order volume was about 110,000 802.11b/g APs.
Meanwhile, China Mobile first began large-scale WLAN hotspot deployments at the end of 2010 and completed WLAN contract bidding for 1 million AP units in March 2011. By the end of 2010, it had established about 36,000 hotspots—more than China Unicom’s 15,000 hotspots but considerably less than China Telecom’s 100,000 hotspots.
The hotspot rollouts continue this year among the three telecommunications carriers. In the first half of 2011, China Mobile’s hotspots had grown to 84,200, up 133.9 percent from the end of 2010. It also expects to launch WLAN central bidding for more than 2 million AP units in December.
For its part, China Telecom said in May it will raise the number of its WLAN hotspots to 1 million by the end of 2012. The third carrier, China Unicom, has kept a low profile, completing procurement activities for 400,000 APs in August 2011.
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