The recent growth of the iPhone, Android (smartphones in general), and now the iPad has put enormous pressure on carriers and bandwidth – the networks.  As the world has come to experience, the mobile web is amazing.  Whether checking Facebook, email, or contacting business and family members, it’s a great utility.

Here’s the problem: the networks are melting under extreme pressure.  Let me explain – the networks that are running this "New Robust Mobile Network" were engineered for cellular phone calls only.  All of these smartphones are running both voice and data now.  5-8 years ago they only were built for voice.  Data requires more frequency.  Some say that a data connection (using iPhone, email etc) is the equivalent to making 5 phone calls in terms of bandwidth.  That’s a minimum of 5x of extra strain.  Now add subscriber growth and usage and the picture is scary.

Data is clogging up the system – the system being those big cell towers or base stations that exist to provide Radio Frequency (RF) access to mobile devices and the networks that carry that data to the Internet (mobile core backhaul).  We are heading for a meltdown.  More towers and better engineering is needed.  The carriers know this and are working hard.  It is difficult to do and cost billions to upgrade.

There just isn’t enough capacity.  Think about all those dropped calls that you used to get.  The cellular service got better years ago because the carriers upgraded the towers -but that was for voice.  Now carriers are racing to upgrade the towers for data – mainly driven by the smartphone’s ability to use the web and the consumer uptake on smartphones.  What’s worse is that the overall network capacity is overloaded and needs more speed.

AT&T has pledged to be better (we are hearing that day in and day out).  Just recently during its fourth-quarter earnings conference call, AT&T admitted that its 3G coverage wasn’t good enough, promising that the company has a plan to improve it, adding more cell towers and connecting them with fast fiber-optic lines. “Wireless is our No. 1 investment priority,” said John Stankey, head of AT&T’s Operations division.

Now the FCC see some issues (as always they are late to the party – I can rant all day about their spectrum policy screw ups).  Particularly with the new iPad. Here is a their comment (via Macnn.com)

The iPad could potentially cause serious havoc for US data networks, say people writing on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission. Updating an official blog, Phil Bellaria, director of scenario planning for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, and John Leibovitz — deputy chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau — observe that the device may put extra strain on already problematic networks. "With the iPad pointing to even greater demand for mobile broadband on the horizon," the pair write, "we must ensure that network congestion doesn’t choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy."

The situation could become serious enough, say Bellaria and Leibovitz, that it might echo the problems of AOL dial-up in 1996 and 1997. After opening up to unlimited use, AOL’s servers collapsed under the load, preventing people from getting any sort of consistent access for several months.

Although avoiding direct insinuations, the post makes clear references to AT&T, which will be the only initial American carrier to support the 3G iPad. The carrier has had enough trouble supporting iPhone data traffic, particularly in New York City in San Francisco. It is feared that the iPad, designed to be treated more like a computer, could overwhelm some AT&T nodes.

Leaders in the networking business are addressing this. Just this week Juniper Networks announced a big speed boost for service providers of which wireless providers can benefit from – a new generation of silicon that pushes up 4 terabits per second (Tbps) compared to Cisco’s 120 Gbps (Gigabits per second). Huge gain.

Without new innovations at the networking and antenna levels mobile web will continue to see slow and spotty coverage. This will hold back new services. The good news is that the mobile internet is good enough in terms of service to provide basic value and companies and entrepreneurs are inventing away on new technologies.

As they say in business there a big "addressable market" in mobile.