Summary
PDAs are indeed adding tremendous traffic on the mobile packet core, backhaul, and radio access.
Airvana's footprint outside Verizon and Sprint is not large enough to be able to make a statement globally!
It is a biased analysis to convince the analysts that their femtocell strategy is coherent!
Analysis
With the penetration of high end and powerful PDAs and mobile dunggles, more subscribers are using them as primary form of access to Internet. iPhones in AT&T's networks account for more than 40% of the data traffic and growing. However, aside from iPhone, other PDAs (i.e. BlackBerry, Palm, Motorola, etc.) are not as widely used for Internet access and are mostly a device to access emails. Also, with high cost of 3G in Western Europe, adoption of mobile data service has been a bit disappointing.
One has to question the motive of Airvana with this report. Airvana's EVDO Rev A footprint is mostly in North America and some in South America where Nortel has CDMA deployments. They probably have good data from Sprint and Verizon Wireless' networks! However, these networks cannot be the only statistical samples that drive the analysis that they have made.
Airvana has bet the farm on femtocells for CDMA and 3G! They have to convince Wall Street and the analyst that their strategy is sound. However, femtocells have proven to be a much harder sell and more difficult technology to deploy than once imagined. All recent reports indicate delay in deployments or even lackluster demand by the subscribers! As a result, one has to question the validity and timing of this analysis!
