A study about the pricing of mobile telephony collaterally underscores the opportunity cable has in providing cellular backhaul.

Mobile operators in the U.S. have begun offering flat-rate, all-you-can-eat plans that are intended to reduce churn and attract new subscribers. The tactic frequently succeeds, says ABI Research, but the operational result is more traffic that can strain the capacity of current networks.

Increased usage of short message service (SMS) can flood the network and impact its ability to deliver voice signaling, which may impact voice calls . Another concern is that unlimited plans may spur text message spamming. Instant Messaging (IM) and "picture mail" usage may also increase under flat-rate plans.

Unlimited Internet access will have the biggest impact on the network, especially if users begin to visit sites such as YouTube to download videos, ABI continued.

Backhaul is also affected. As operators' 3G backhaul requirement increases and they plan for network migration, higher-capacity backhaul becomes essential.

"The cost of increasing backhaul capacity, handling more calls to service centers and potential increases in customer churn can quickly erode any gains from flat-rate plans," concluded ABI senior analyst Nadine Manjaro.

ABI paints the problem as imminent, from which cable could infer that so too is the opportunity to provide backhaul services.

These issues are discussed in ABI Research's study – "Mobile Backhaul Analysis: Global Trends and Opportunities."

An article on the basics of cellular backhaul for cable is included in the April issue of CED (read the article here). Another article with examples from an implementation of cellular backhaul deployed by Time Warner Cable is scheduled for the May issue.

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