torsdag 28. januar 2010

Stoke’s Mobile Data Offload helps carriers deal with 3G data overload

With more and more data-heavy 3G phones hitting the market, mobile carriers are having a tough time dealing with the influx of new traffic. The data hungry iPhone has caused problems for AT&T, and things will only get worse for other carriers with the rise of Android, Palm, and a potential new mobile platform from Microsoft.
The logical solution to these issues is to add more network capacity, but that can be an expensive and time-consuming process. Another answer is to offload the increased data load from the mobile network — and that’s just what mobile broadband gateway developer Stoke is proposing with its Mobile Data Offload (MDO) solution, announced today.
MDO lets carriers reroute traffic destined for the Internet away from the cellular network, and towards the nearest Internet connect. Stoke explains it like this:
SMDO selectively diverts traffic streams off of the legacy mobile network–bypassing the data core infrastructure–routing it directly to the Internet. SMDO performs this function without impacting untargeted traffic flows, without interfering with subscriber mobility, and without requiring any configuration changes to the mobile network elements.
Stoke isn’t new to the offloading business. For years it’s tried to sell carriers on Wi-Fi/cellular roaming as an offloading method, but the concept never really caught on. MDO has a better chance at succeeding because it integrates into the cellular network infrastructure, and it doesn’t require any extra effort from cellular users.
Given how much AT&T users in New York and San Francisco complain about poor iPhone coverage (yes, I’m among them), an easy-to-deploy solution like Stoke MDO could be wildly successful — assuming it works as advertised.
Stoke is based in Santa Clara, Calif. The company launched in 2005 and has received a total of $70 million in funding to date from investors including DOCOMO Capital, Mobile Internet Capital, Net One Systems, Reliance Technology Ventures Limited, DAG Ventures, Integral Capital Partners, Pilot House Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

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