Operators are expected to offload more and more of their traffic over indoor and outdoor small cells, Wi-Fi hotspots and residential femtocells, according to Infonetics Research.
Co-founder Michael Howard said that while operators handle an average of 90% of their mobile traffic with macrocells and the backhaul network, they are already offloading about 10% of their traffic over the smaller means.
Operators intend to triple that to about 30% at some point in 2013 or later, with outdoor small cells seeing the most growth in use.