Improving connectivity for your customers is beneficial for business, whether you're a mobile operator, an MVNO or a professional mobile data network. Happy customers will help grow your business further. Cellular network congestion can significantly impact business productivity and customer satisfaction. Speedify, a powerful network bonding tool, can mitigate these challenges by intelligently combining multiple internet connections, such as Wi-Fi and cellular. By leveraging this technology, enterprises can improve network reliability, reduce latency, and ensure seamless connectivity for remote workers and mobile employees, even in areas with congested cellular networks.

The mobility and flexibility of cellular networks has historically been relied upon by network operators and professional mobile data providers. A few also employ supplementary Wi-Fi infrastructure, although mostly for data backup purposes in case of cellular failure. Imagine being able to secure communications while simultaneously utilizing all of the network's resources. It could significantly improve the connectivity services you offer and, thus, get you more happy customers. This article shares how you can easily fix cellular network congestion problems with the help of channel bonding technology.

Cellular congestion occurs when too many devices are attempting to use a cellular network in a specific area, overwhelming the network's capacity. This can lead to slower data speeds, dropped calls, and unreliable connectivity.

Cellular congestion, a type of network congestion, is generated when a cell tower is used by too many devices at the same time. This leads to poor service quality due to the network exceeding its capacity to handle the demand. An analogy would be the rush hour traffic on a mobile network where there are more users than the cell tower can efficiently serve.

Mobile data traffic is on an exponential rise, accounting for a predicted growth of almost 300% in the following years, according to Statista: “In 2022, the average data used per smartphone per month worldwide amounted to 15 GB. The source forecasts that this will increase to around 46 GB per smartphone per month globally in 2028”. Ericsson’s June 2024 Mobility Report has a similar figure when it comes to mobile data traffic per smartphone. But when looking at total mobile network traffic, they forecast a CAGR of 23% between 2023 and 2029, reaching an impressive 466 EB (exabyte)/month.

The main drivers for this growth are the rapid redeployment of 5G networks globally and the escalating consumption of video streaming services, social media and other real-time communication applications. Naturally, the numbers are different from region to region, but the overall trends are the same. And, in this context, cellular network congestion is something you most surely want to eliminate.

When the network infrastructure we have come to depend on is not keeping up with the demand, this directly impacts customer satisfaction. The instantaneous movement of high bandwidth data over these networks is vital to many businesses. Impacts arise from poor/legacy coverage in rural areas, infrastructure faults, congested or slow networks and devices latching onto poor unmanaged Wi-Fi. A modern and adaptable network service is the bread and butter when it comes to providing a fast and reliable service. 

Another major factor that can generate hassles is the cost of cellular services. MVNOs see this first hand. As they’re not using their own cellular infrastructure, the cost of traffic on the mobile network can make it hard to compete. Even if there is a Wi-Fi network infrastructure available, they will certainly not get the long distance coverage cellular data has.

And let's not forget about online traffic security. Most companies now use VPNs for their remote workers, as they are aware of the dangers that reside with both public Wi-Fi and cellular data traffic. As stated in the 2024 GSMA security threat landscape report, implemented security defenses include a secure by design architecture and multi-layered defenses, where the usage of VPN encryption can help organizations.

These are even more important when your main market is a competitive one, such as North America, most of Europe and Asia. Your existing clients and potential ones will just choose the best available alternative.

ISPs and network carriers can use a plethora of solutions to fix network congestion, including:

• bonding multiple wireless networks - use both cellular and Wi-Fi infrastructure available so users get fast and reliable internet connectivity;
• expanding network capacity - increase the number of cell towers and base stations;
• deploying small cells - utilizing small cell technology to improve coverage in dense urban areas;
• upgrading network equipment - modernize network infrastructure with advanced technologies;
• traffic shaping and prioritization - prioritize critical services like voice calls and emergency services during peak times;
• load balancing - distribute traffic across multiple cell towers and base stations to reduce congestion;
• congestion control algorithms - detect and mitigate congestion based on specific algorithms.

Apart from these, they can also engage in spectrum management and user education and awareness.

Data throttling is one technique widely used in North America - it will slow down specific types of traffic (usually streaming and gaming) in order to accommodate more traffic, hence more happy users. At least that’s what they think...

But, as we all know, you don’t get happy customers by limiting their bandwidth or making them pay obscene amounts for extra mobile data traffic, while also granting them the "pleasure" to experience cellular network congestion. So, what’s the real solution to get a fast and reliable Internet?

In the midst of a digital transition, mobile network operators and providers of professional mobile data services are searching for new sources of income. Many provide conduits for specialized digital content or security-as-a-service, but these options alone can be unsatisfactory and have a limited uptake. Offering more extensive connection and security-enhancing options would be a superior strategy and would make your clients happy every time they connect. Now, service providers can reduce traditional service costs while gaining access to the industry-leading portfolio of capabilities that can be instantly monetarily profited from.

Speedify provides mission critical solutions for businesses of all sizes with a zero-day ROI by offering:

1. A white labeled carrier-grade mobile application, ideal for creating a customer facing value-added subscription service.
2. An SDK for including in-home CPE (Consumer Premise Equipment) to provide standard Hybrid Access Gateway functions and ensure a mobile backup path for fixed line customers.
3. An offload and traffic routing service which can lower the operational cost of a mobile service provider whilst increasing the value of analytics and other value added services deployed in the network.

Coupling the above with the world’s only bonding VPN service; customers get peace of mind through industry leading security which is resilient to network interruptions and handovers. Performance impacts at the network edges are avoided and reliability is improved by using more than one network at a time – Speedify is a game changing differentiator when it comes to minimizing cellular network congestion.

As explained above, the main benefits for mobile network operators, MVNOs and professional mobile data network services providers is lowering operational costs while increasing service value. Some of our SDK partners include organizations like Xfinity, CUJO AI, OmniAccess, Cox and Comcast.

We compiled a table that explains how Speedify can help with connectivity and security hassles:

Ready to find out more about Speedify? Reach out!