By Vince Lesch

Wireless carriers and brands seeking new ways to reach consumers have tremendous opportunities in 2010, spurred by technology development and innovative uses of existing systems. 

With increasing data throughput rates, subscribers accessing more data on their handsets and organizations automating more tasks, the following trends in network design will redefine the mobile experience next year.

SMS traffic growth
AT&T and Verizon Wireless nearly doubled their text message traffic from third-quarter 2008 to third-quarter 2009, showing that SMS continues to become even more pervasive. 

While person-to-person (P2P) messages will keep increasing, the next major growth area is in fact machine-to-machine (M2M) SMS. 

ABI Research recently released data showing that M2M SMS and MMS message volume will have a compound annual growth rate of 40.06 percent from 2008 to 2014 (?Mobile Messaging Services: SMS, MMS, Mobile Email, and Mobile IM,? 4Q 2009).

Brands can capitalize on SMS M2M to more rapidly meet their customers? needs. 

For example, vending machines located anywhere with cellular reception can send texts when inventory is low, rapidly and affordably assuring that goods remain in stock. 

Another example is in Somerville, MA, where the town?s text messaging for trash cans alert the city when to empty full bins ? reducing personnel trips and limiting the likelihood of trash overflows.

Long Term Evolution challenges and opportunities
Long Term Evolution (LTE), scheduled to first go live in 2010, is designed to offer data-intense services at the same quality and reliability that subscribers enjoy with voice and SMS.

As mobile data traffic swells, though, carriers will have to change how they manage network performance.

The solution is knowledge of the type and quantity of data to collect. This gives carriers the flexibility to scale monitoring systems and data collection incrementally, adding equipment and resources only when needed. 

Carriers can then focus on the highest-value traffic, controlling 80 percent of their revenue while actually monitoring a small percentage of the total traffic volume.

When needed, carriers will also be able to monitor 100 percent of VIP traffic to ensure that the highest-revenue or most profitable customers are best serviced, strengthening customer loyalty to proactively reduce churn.

Network complexity
New technologies come into the network far faster than old technologies leave the network, adding exponential complexity with new waves of devices, protocols and equipment. 

This will again be the norm in 2010, highlighted by LTE equipment and LTE-compatible handsets. 

Carriers will need to streamline architectures to centralize network routing, eliminating expansive meshes of connectivity in favor for flexible, scalable single interfaces. 

This will enable them to introduce new services ? directly through carriers or through third-party partners ? that use the enhanced equipment to incrementally add revenue and attract subscribers from competitors.

Next year will expand on carriers and brands? use of mobility, capitalizing on technology developments to lower business costs, increase customer retention and identify new revenue sources. 

Subscribers will see both direct benefits such as new handsets and higher quality service and indirect benefits including stocked vending machines as reliance on mobility rises in 2010 and beyond.

Vince Lesch is vice president of product marketing at Tekelec, Morrisville, NC. Reach him at .