Interesting Points from Article "Mobile Data Offload - Can WiFi Deliver?"

An article written by CEO of IntelliNet Technologies, Anjan Ghosal, pointed out several interesting points.
One of them is regarding the “Failure of UMA Approach” towards Data Offload strategy.

1. Lack of a ‘disruptive’ driver: The key driver for UMA was improved voice coverage inside the home – hardly a strong enough business case. Data is a much bigger issue for the carriers today and provides a real incentive for them to adopt Wi-Fi.
2. User experience: Wi-Fi a natural fit for data offload. Today millions of subscribers are already using Wi-Fi as their primary source for data/internet access. Wi-Fi offload preserves this experience.
3. Device support: One of the major impediments for mass adoption of UMA has been the lack of handset support. Requiring device manufacturers to embed client software in their handsets has been an uphill battle for many promising start ups
4. Carrier approach to Wi-Fi: Until about a year ago, carriers viewed Wi-Fi as a threat to their networks. That has changed and carriers today have embraced Wi-Fi as a part of their network – making them more open to adopting Wi-Fi based approaches.
5. Lack of marketing focus: Discussions with a number of carriers have revealed that due to internal ambivalence about Wi-Fi – the marketing efforts to promote this solution has been limited – leading to further lack of interest from the customers.

The telcos are able to implement 3 distinct offload categories depending on the complexity and how tightly couple are their customers and applications on both networks.

Network Bypass


Managed Network Bypass



Integrated Data Offload