New research shows mobile broadband adoption is soaring, despite economic struggles worldwide. For example, global HSPA connections will surpass 150 million by the end of summer, according to one study, while another shows mobile data bandwidth use jumped 30 percent during this year’s second quarter. Still, a third study warns, telecom operators shouldn’t count on this activity to boost revenue during the recession; instead, experts recommend viewing mobile broadband services as differentiators. Nonetheless, put it all together and telecom providers are well on their way to mobile ubiquity as everyone from consumers and car companies to energy and utility firms find new ways to use wireless broadband.
Mobile broadband growth is particularly pronounced in the Asia Pacific and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to the GSM Association and database tracker Wireless Intelligence. HSPA connections in those regions will have reached 56 million and 60 million, respectively, by the end of September 2009, the organization found. The United States will inch from 32 million HSPA connections to 37 million in the same time frame. The growth demonstrates how using one technology – HSPA – avoids fragmentation that limits “potential to improve the quality of people’s lives,” said Dan Warren, technology director for the GSM Association.
To that end, the London-based organization projects users will have completed 200 million HSPA connections by the first quarter of 2010.
Along similar lines, vendor Allot Communications Ltd., in its first-ever Global Mobile Broadband Traffic Report, said mobile data bandwidth use jumped 30 percent during this year’s second quarter. Of 150 million users, Asia and Europe again led the pack in HTTP browsing, streaming and downloading. Indeed, around the world, demand for video over mobile broadband connections spiked 58 percent in the second quarter, Allot said. Sites such as YouTube and Hulu are gaining traction outside the desktop.
But the going has been tough for mobile service providers, and will remain so for a while, for two reasons.
