The Department of Defense, through its various commands and programs, contracts a significant number of cellular communications annually. The advent of digital, packet-switched cellular communications, in conjunction with the use of IEEE 802.11n (wireless networking standard), may provide a means of reducing reliance on wired infrastructure for much of in garrison and deployed communications. Smart phones provide a highly flexible platform for mission enhancing tools and critical computational capabilities to fielded troops. The growth of smart phone usage postures wireless technology to become the preferred means of administrative and operational communications for emergency personnel contact, recall and other uses. However, wireless usage assumes a ubiquitous, ever-present infrastructure that is not always accessible within structures or in remote operating locations. Options exist to resolve such issues; however, care must be taken to constrain the cost of acquiring and operating wireless technologies.
This article describes a path to exploring the utility of establishing select in-house services normally associated with mobile virtual network operators as a means of controlling costs. MVNOs provide tailored cellular services as an intermediary between consumers and mobile network operators (MNOs) or commercial wireless providers.
There are two domains in which one might propose the use of cellular technologies; each has a significantly different goal yet the potential for cost savings crosses both. For in garrison use, the potential exists to extend the normal workspace beyond the walls of a cubicle or an office so that the office is wherever the user happens to be. For deployment support, tactical military systems are increasingly overshadowed and outperformed by the capabilities emerging within the commercial sector. Further, commercial off-the-shelf smart phones provide capabilities that support applications that are relevant to the military, such as position/location determination and reporting, movement tracking, orientation, texting and streaming video. Many of these commercial applications are already in use by military members as part of their daily off-duty activity. With the evolution of Web-based information sharing and data rendering standards, such as XML and HTML, the smart phone is also posed as a cost-effective interoperability enabler.
One need not look far to see how cellular technologies are shaping the future of government and business communications, nor to project how they may affect command and control. While the use of cellular technologies has yet to saturate the DoD (i.e., hundreds of thousands of subscribers compared to more than 3 million employees), the number of individual commercial subscriptions for cellular technologies and services issued by DoD is significant. While specific quantities are difficult to Dixonenumerate, more than 250,000 cellular service accounts are active within the DoD, not including special programs that have purchased services in bulk to satisfy mission requirements. When emerging initiatives are considered, this number could easily grow to more than 2 million subscribers, many with more than one device. The devices often house more than a single radio transceiver. Miniaturization of smart phone technologies continues, and remote access capabilities are becoming sufficiently secure to meet DoD requirements. Smart phones are more than just personal communications devices; they have become asset tracking and command and control components.
The potential for savings or unnecessary expense is staggering; a situation exacerbated by fragmented technology adoption by DoD organizations. A niche industry, the mobile virtual network operator, has grown within the commercial sector to control cellular service costs within the private and business sectors. MVNOs have made prepaid cellular service and flat-rate subscription service possible.
The DoD ha