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SPECIAL REPORT SERIES
UTILITY INSIGHTS
UNDERSTANDING 4G LTE
FOR BUSINESS
www.smithbellerby.co.uk ii
Contents
Executive Summary 1
The Evolution of Business Communications 2
What is 4G LTE? 4
The Applicability of 4G LTE 5
The Future of Telecommunications 7
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bradley Agnew / Digital Marketing Manager
I enjoy working closely with the team to ensure that we provide value to our
clients, delivering utility insights and industry news across all our online
channels. I’m responsible for managing our digital strategy, which means that
I’m always looking for new ways we can help clients and add value using
digital media.
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 1
Executive Summary
As workforces becoming increasingly mobile and
organisations continue to demand greater
communication and collaboration between
employees, the business environment is applying
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
increasingly broadly. This evolution in business
communications depends upon significant
development of mobile communications
technology.
4G LTE (‘Fourth Generation – Long-Term Evolution’)
represents the latest development in data technology
for cellular networks, delivering technical performance
improvements that translate to practical advantages
over previous generations, offering organisations an
excellent opportunity to improve organisational
performance and gain a substantial competitive
advantage.
The improved mobility and performance that 4G LTE
delivers enables organisations to:
Maximise sales and achieve higher levels of
customer service.
Improve operational efficiency and service
delivery.
Develop organisational efficiency and
workforce productivity.
Achieve substantial cost reductions.
Improve decision-making and flexibility.
Compared with 3G, 4G LTE delivers much higher
bandwidth, increased network capacity and reduced
latency, resulting in faster network responsiveness and
more efficient communication across the value chain. In
practice, this allows:
Increased accessibility of enterprise-level
applications to mobile workforces.
Faster real-time file sharing, media streaming,
and communication between employees.
Improved workforce productivity, employee
motivation and management effectiveness.
Using survey data together with Smith Bellerby project
experience, this paper outlines the technical
performance improvements and practical benefits that
UK organisations can expect from 4G LTE and sets out
to explain how the value of LTE can be fully leveraged
to improve organisational performance.
With UK operators deploying 4G LTE nationwide, non-
domestic customers need to consider how to best
exploit the opportunities that this crucial development
in mobile communications presents. Organisations
much understand the evolving nature of
communications and how 4G LTE can support them in
continuously improving organisational performance and
capitalising on the competitive advantage of an
increasingly flexible and mobile workforce.
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 2
The Evolution of Business Communications
Organisations across a diverse range of industries
and sectors continue to demand more effective
communication and greater collaboration as
workforces become increasingly mobile. The rising
popularity of smartphone and tablet devices utilising
cloud-based content and services means that
emerging technologies present an excellent
opportunity to improve organisational performance
and achieve significant cost savings.
These developments in business communications can be
summarised in three key trends:
Increasing mobility of the workforce.
Continuing demand for cloud-based service
delivery.
The consumerisation of information technology in
organisations.
These key trends in the evolution of business
communications will contribute to a rapid increase in the
already significant data demand from UK organisations.
As data demand from consumers continues to rise, this
trend will be reflected in organisations across a diverse
range of verticals, driven by the continuing
consumerisation of ICT in organisations and the
development of enterprise-level mobile applications.
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Increased worker productivity
Increased employee responsiveness
Resolved customer issues faster
Resolved internal IT issues faster
Improved customer satisfaction
Reduced sales cycle time
Reduced personnel costs
Reduced fuel, gas or fleet maintenance costs
Competitive differentiation
Increased sales revenue
Improved brand perception
Reduced inventory costs
Figure 1: What Benefit Has Your Firm Experienced as a Result of
Deploying Mobile Applications?
Base: 2,247 network and telecom decision-makers Source: Forrester, Enterprise and SMB Networks and Telecommunications Survey, North America and Europe, Q1 2010
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 3
By leveraging these high performance mobile-based
applications, organisations will be well-placed to
maximise the value of emerging technologies and take
full advantage of the following benefits:
Maximising sales and achieving higher levels of
customer service. Accelerate the sales process with
improved access to sophisticated media and
applications, improve the productivity and
motivation of a flexible sales force, and deliver a
more attentive and customer-focused after-sales
service.
Improving operational efficiency and service
delivery. Integrating enterprise-level mobile
applications utilising cloud-based content and
services enables faster and greater access to
information across the value chain.
Developing organisational efficiency and
workforce productivity. By minimising wasted time
and enabling more effective flexible working,
organisations can transform productivity and
efficiency together with management effectiveness.
Supporting the implementation of cost
management initiatives. Utilising emerging
technologies and incorporating mobile technology
can deliver direct cost reductions by enabling
remote working and teleworking and controlling
investment in telecoms equipment.
Improving decision-making and flexibility.
Enabling faster and great access to information
improves communication and collaboration which
results in greater flexibility and improved decision-
making,
This paper draws on Smith Bellerby project experience
working with senior executives from leading
organisations across a diverse range of industries and
sectors, in addition to survey data from markets where
4G LTE has already been implemented.
In this paper, we outline the practical benefits that
emerging technologies such as 4G LTE can deliver for
UK organisations, including the best applications of 4G
LTE, and how organisations can utilise these
technologies to improve their performance.
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 4
What is 4G LTE?
4G LTE is the fourth generation of data technology for
cellular networks. This development in mobile
network technology delivers higher bandwidth,
reduced latency and greater overall network capacity
which enables organisations to fully utilise high
performance enterprise-level mobile applications.
Organisations operating in overseas markets where
4G LTE has already been deployed report improved
workforce productivity and higher levels of
operational efficiency – with externally-focused
functional areas seeing the best results.
4G LTE represents a significant development in data
technology, delivering improved technical performance
compared to previous generations, which translates to
several practical advantages that contribute significantly to
improved organisational performance.
The most significant developments include:
Higher bandwidth
Reduced latency
Increased capacity
The developed information architecture and improved
efficiency of LTE also delivers direct cost savings for
organisations resulting in a more cost-effective mobile
network. Improved management capabilities also allow
greater control over cellular networks, resulting in a
uniquely tailored solutions that adds significant value
throughout the value chain.
Figure 2 provides an outline of the technical improvements
that 4G LTE offers, and the practical benefits that
implementing 4G LTE could deliver.
Figure 2: 4G LTE’s technical performance and practical benefits compared to previous generations of LTE
Technical performance
Practical benefits of 4G LTE
Higher bandwidth (speed of data transfer)
Reduced latency, faster transition from idle to
active mode
Greater network capacity and higher spectrum
efficiency (improved efficiency)
Improved management capabilities and enhances
Quality of Service
Ease of integration due to all IP network (improved
cost-efficiency)
Higher speed of data transfer enables greater
access to sophisticated data streams
Improved network responsiveness facilitates real-
time communication, enabling greater
communication and collaboration
Increased levels of security, reliability and
consistency improves user experience
Improved application performance and greater
mobility and flexibility of the workforce
Source: Smith Bellerby analysis
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 5
The Applicability of 4G LTE
When compared to previous generations of LTE, 4G
delivers technical improvements that enable
workforces to become truly mobile, increasing the
accessibility of information whilst improving
performance for latency-sensitive applications. As
opposed to Wi-Fi networks, Long-Term Evolution
offers high levels of security, reliability and mobility
by delivering secure connectivity at high
bandwidths.
Characteristics of 4G LTE application
By using project experience from markets where 4G LTE
has been successfully implemented, we can understand
a range of use-cases that illustrate the value of 4G LTE.
When evaluating the applicability of 4G LTE it is
important to consider the following characteristics:
‘Application breadth’ – how many of the
applications used in the office environment need to
be accessible to a mobile workforce?
‘Mobility’ – how mobile is the workforce? Is
mobile application use limited to a single site, is it
spread across multiple sites, or is it fully mobile?
‘Data intensity’ – what type and scale of data is
needed for mobile applications?
‘Responsiveness’ – what Quality of Service and
network latency is required for mobile applications?
‘Application criticality’ – what are the implications
of application failure?
Suitability of different wireless technologies
Generally, Wi-Fi offers higher bandwidth at the expense
of mobility, and is better suited to office environments.
3G, on the other hand, is well-suited to fully-mobile
workforces, although there may be issues with the
reliability and security of a 3G connection for high
performance applications.
Figure 3 provides an overview of the fundamental
differences between a wide range of mobile
technologies and their applicability based on typical
performance measures.
Figure 3: Applicability and performance of mobile technologies
2G
(GSM/GPRS)
3G (HSPA,
HSPA+)
Wi-Fi (with fibre) 4G LTE
Applicability Device type Feature phone,
smartphone
Tablet,
smartphone
PC/laptop, tablet,
smartphone
PC/laptop, tablet,
smartphone
Performance
(typical
measured)
Download speed (Mbps) 0.01-0.13 1-5 20-30 10-40
Upload speed (Mbps) 0.008-0.13 0.2-0.5 2-10 1-15
Latency (ms) 300-700 (GPRS) 100-200 10-20 50-150
Sources: PCMag.com, LTEworld.org, mobile-phones-uk.org.uk, ISPreview, 3G Americas/RYSAVY Research, Agilent technologies, Telia Sonera, Verizon,
AT&T, EE, Smith Bellerby analysis. Note: performance statistics are typical measured figures.
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 6
Based on these performance measures, it is clear that 4G LTE could be the ‘best of both worlds’, by combining the
mobility and flexibility of fully-mobile working with true broadband speeds and enhanced security.
Figure 4: Practical advantages of 4G LTE compared to previous wireless technologies
Compared with 3G
Compared with Wi-Fi
Greater access to a diverse range of high
performance mobile applications
Faster file sharing, media streaming and real-time
communication
Greater mobility and flexibility whilst maintaining,
or even exceeding, true broadband speeds
Improved convenience, security and reliability,
resulting in a more powerful, consistent user
experience
Relevance of LTE to business-specific applications
In broad terms, LTE’s practical benefits are most useful
when using data-intensive and mobile-centric
applications for personal communication and
collaboration, customer relationship management, and
project management.
Businesses can reap the benefits of 4G LTE for a diverse
range of applications, some of which are specific to a
particular industry sector, whereas others are purely
horizontal applications, such as email or sales force
automation.
Use cases that benefit from 4G LTE
1. Large file transfer – with the increasing
popularity of cloud-based content and
services, mobile workforces are downloading
and uploading large files on-the-go. This trend
means that the higher bandwidth offered by
4G LTE is absolutely critical to productive
mobile workforces.
2. Rapid workplace set-up – the rising trend in
the flexibility of the workforce requires
investment in appropriate technologies that
will enable organisations to set-up temporary
workplaces by utilising LTE-connected Wi-Fi
hubs. 4G LTE delivers true broadband speeds
on a fully-mobile network.
3. Sophisticated machine-to-machine and
remote monitoring applications – a diverse
range of M2M applications require
transmission of rich media via an always-on
data dream. 4G LTE can transform many
machine-to-machine applications by enabling
large file transfer at high bandwidth without
being connected to a fixed line.
4. Videoconferencing, tele-presence and rich
media collaboration – in terms of employee
communication and collaboration, LTE offers
tremendous value by enabling mobile
workforces to communicate more effectively
via video-based conferencing over mobile
networks.
5. Remote access and teleworking – the
continuing mobility and flexibility of the
workforce requires appropriate technologies
that will enable remote access to business
applications through cloud-based platforms.
Understanding 4G LTE for Business
www.smithbellerby.co.uk 7
The Future of Telecommunications
This paper has presented the opportunities that 4G LTE
offers UK organisations as the latest development in
mobile communications. In addition to enabling greater
access to high performance applications, LTE will also
improve the performance of applications that already
function well on mobile devices, increasing their
responsiveness and enhancing the user experience.
Businesses in the UK are well-placed to take advantage
of the wide range of benefits that LTE has to offer:
increased sales and enhanced customer service;
improved workforce productivity; substantial cost
savings; higher employee motivation; greater
operational efficiency; and greater communication and
collaboration throughout the value chain.
UK organisations now need to consider how to best
exploit the opportunities that this crucial development
in mobile communications presents. Organisations
much understand the evolving nature of
communications and how 4G LTE can support them in
continuously improving organisational performance and
capitalising on the competitive advantage of an
increasingly flexible and mobile workforce.
We are led to believe that by 2020 some parts of the
UK, typically the larger metropolitan areas, could have
5G, which may deliver bandwidth giving 100 times the
data speeds of 4G. This would be a major "game
changer", completely removing the need for the 150
year old, copper-based, wired infrastructure in cities. As
with most things broadband, don't expect it anytime
soon in the more rural areas...
4G LTE is the next logical step in the evolution of
business communications – the time to act is now.
If you would like more information or to arrange an
informal discussion on the issues raised in this
paper, please contact:
Steve Bellerby
Managing Director
Jenny Smith
Operations Director
Smith Bellerby
Smith Bellerby, founded in 1997, is the UK’s leading cost
management consultancy. We deliver sustainable profitable
growth and major cost reductions for our clients using a
strategic approach to utility management.
For over 15 years, we’ve been helping leading organisations
across a diverse range of industries and sectors to overcome
their key cost management challenges.
We have built our business upon a reputation for outstanding
customer service, saving clients in excess of £7 million and still
counting.
For further information, please visit www.smithbellerby.co.uk
Copyright © 2015 Smith Bellerby Ltd. All rights reserved.