4G and Wi-Fi Change The Wireless Game Jeff Thompson Towerstream CEO

Jeff Thompson, CEO Towerstream Towerstream is a leading 4G service provider delivering high speed wireless Internet access to businesses in major U.S. markets. Jeff has over 10 years experience building wireless networks. Jeff co-founded Towerstream in December 1999 and serves as President and CEO. He has overseen Towerstream’s growth by establishing robust wireless networks in 11 U.S. cities, including Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, among others.

Current State of Wireless Smartphone Penetration: Verizon expects at least 50% of its customers to own a smartphone by the end of 2011 Tablet Explosion: By 2015, 63.3 million tablets are projected to be in use by consumers – Yankee Group Data Usage Skyrockets: Mobile data traffic is expected to double each year through 2014, increasing to 17 times above 2010 levels – Cisco

Wireless Network Congestion To cope with expected increases in mobile data traffic, major wireless carriers are investing billions of dollars in 3G and 4G network technologies However, these investments are not anticipated to fully relieve the current strain on networks Verizon has reported that its LTE upgrade will increase capacity 4x, but mobile data consumption is expected to increase 39x by 2014, according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index

4G Networks Can’t Do it Alone How can these next-generation wireless networks keep up with the staggering amount of data consumption among smartphone and tablet users? As data-hungry smartphones and tablets continue their exponential growth, it is clear that current 3G and 4G networks are not sufficient to handle this massive increase in data transfer alone.

Wi-Fi Gains Momentum According to Deloitte, mobile data downloaded from public Wi-Fi networks will grow by 25-50% in 2011 – much faster than the growth of data carried over cellular broadband networks Video is the key driver of data traffic from smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices Wi-Fi is likely to become the default network for video applications The shift from “all-you-can-eat” mobile data plans to capped monthly usage will further drive Wi-Fi growth Example: One hour of video streaming at 500 kbit/s would eat up the entire allowance of a monthly data plan capped at 200 mb

Wi-Fi Complements Cellular Broadband The battle between Wi-Fi and cellular broadband is not a zero-sum game: Both can be winners Mobile providers must offer a range of wireless and wireline technologies and help their customers tap into the right mix The goal for carriers should be to make the entire connected experience as seamless as possible for consumers through both next-gen broadband networks and Wi-Fi deployments

How Does Wi-Fi Data Offloading Work? Data traffic offload via Smart Wi-Fi Smart Wi-Fi backhaul Buffered authentication and roaming transactions Flexible, dynamic tunneling options

4G Will Make Wi-Fi Offloading Easier With the flexibility to handle voice, data, and video over Internet Protocol, 4G networks will make Wi-Fi data offloading more accessible Due to packet-based data transfer, 4G makes offloading of lower-margin bits a reality

Wi-Fi Network Expansion in New York City Coverage Covering approximately 40% of NYC 1000 access points by mid-year Capacity Network has 20 times the capacity of proposed LTE network of 2013 Speed One of the fastest portable networks in Manhattan

Wi-Fi: The Demand Is There It is clear that major wireless carriers view Wi-Fi as an important part of their business moving forward Towerstream’s Manhattan pilot network experienced millions of connections in the months following launch Roughly 250,000 connections per day without marketing effort

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