As the global 3G markets develop, mobile data services will account for an ever larger percentage of applications. Among all mobile data services, wireless network access is distinguished by the highest mobility requirements. Congruently, compared with fixed, mobile broadband networks face greater challenges regarding the introduction of content, applications, terminals, and tariffs. The dilemma for operators is how to afford mobile broadband network construction and operation costs while providing inexpensive, quality mobile broadband services. Adding emphasis to the problem are the key distinctions of fixed and mobile: 

• Fixed broadband networks guarantee high speed, mobile address the issues of convenience. 
• Each network dictates addressing the differing needs of divergent audiences: younger generations and business people create the demand for mobile, while fixed broadband users are mostly represented by home and office users.
• The technical development capacity of a mobile broadband network is less than one tenth that of fixed broadband networks and the cost per bit of a typical mobile model is ten times more than fixed.

Compounding these concerns, Huawei believes mobile broadband network demand for transmission resources and data traffic will become as much as a hundred times that of current 2G networks. As the size of a conventional mobile network grows, it will become increasingly difficult to allocate site address resources and reduce network operation and maintenance costs. To date, because service revenues have not increased commensurately with traffic, no mobile data service operator has achieved absolute success. For example, while mobile data service traffic might increase 50 to100%, corresponding revenue may only grow by 10 to 20%. Understandably, an uncertain return can give operators cause to hesitate before committing to mobile broadband network investments. However, delaying deployment of mobile broadband can lead to loss of subscribers and slowing of critical business momentum. 

"Based on global operator feedback, three key issues must be considered: 

• Balancing the allocation of site address resources while effectively reducing operating costs
• Reducing backhaul transmission costs on access networks so that, after P2P applications on the legacy networks are transferred to the mobile Internet, traffic can grow exponentially and unimpeded
• Providing a platform for innovative, cost- and time-efficient ways to increase revenues as service traffic grows"

Currently, applications on the mobile internet are largely those of legacy 2G networks. By definition, mobile broadband must provide more than just the addition of mobile voice networks to the internet. Mobile operators must design more feasible and economical mobile network topologies. 

On present fixed broadband networks, operators typically separate voice networks from broadband networks, especially on the access network level. By configuring simple QoS policies, operators preferentially allocate bandwidth resources for delay-sensitive services such as IPTV and VoIP. We believe that mobile operators can apply this model to mobile broadband, but, when building these new networks, operators need to think out of the box: 

• Separating the applications of voice networks from those of data to gain freedom from the constrained models of legacy voice network deployments
• Accepting the fact that revenues will remain low in the earlier stages of mobile broadband network development even though data traffic is massive
• Finding a way to effectively reduce the cost per bit
• Optimizing utilization of channel resources to maximize value

The great value of inspired improvement lies in the level of experience with which the resulting innovation is supported. Since 2007, Huawei has been repeatedly selected for the deployment of the high-end, mobile broadband solutions on many continents:

• EMOBILE has quickly become the most competitive mobile broadband operator in Japan following Huawei's assistance with the launch of that country's first 7.2 Mb/s HSDPA and 1.4 Mb/s HSUPA services.
• StarHub in Singapore partnered with Huawei to build the first commercial HSPA+ network in the Asia Pacific region and the world's first commercial Femtocell network.
• Telefónica O2 Germany called on Huawei to help deploy the world's first 28-Mb/s commercial HSPA+ network.
• Optus in Australia is working with Huawei on the largest UMTS900 network in the southern hemisphere—UMTS900 provides an ideal frequency for sparsely populated areas (a single UMTS900 base station provides broader coverage than the 2100 frequency spectrum currently being operated by the majority of the world's 3G carriers), reducing the cost of rollout—ultimately intended to covers the entire continent.
• TeliaSonera and Huawei announced the industry's first mobile broadband internet connection over a live commercial LTE network in Oslo, Norway in June, 2009, well on target for completion of the world's first 4G/LTE network in 2010.

Based on our roadmap of early success in mobile and fixed broadband network construction, Huawei now responds to the mobile broadband dilemma facing global operators with the unique "Two Clouds" solution. 

Employing optimal topologies for access networks providing DSL-level bandwidth for users across the board, the two clouds work together to deliver the most cost-effective means of enhancing user experiences. 

• A high speed cloud, consisting of Pico and AP BTSs, is typically deployed in densely-populated urban areas to deliver an average bandwidth of 2 Mb/s.
• A continuous cloud of macro BTSs is applied for wide coverage delivering a bandwidth of 256 to 512 kb/s.

Huawei's "Two Clouds" model allows operators to profitably deploy mobile broadband networks while utilizing an intelligent site management framework to automatically adjust bandwidth and reducing construction, operation, and maintenance costs. 

Incorporating this framework, flexible network mapping permits manageable, controllable mobile broadband networks, ensuring continuous network coverage in various scenarios, and provides users with inexpensive, quality broadband services. Very convincingly, Huawei's "Two Clouds" concept can reduce the cost per bit by as much as 70%. The answer to tomorrow's mobile broadband future is here, today.