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Screen Digest have released a report on the state of the 3G Mobile broadband market, which makes interesting reading. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of 3G mobile broadband, and think it’s been instrumental in providing good Mobile data access, plus bolstering Mobile Operators’ bottom lines!
Here are some salient stats from the analysis:
- The research reveals that there has been a significant uptake in the usage of mobile broadband in the past two years, especially in Europe.
- The growth in take up of mobile broadband has inevitably fuelled a
pricing war between the operators. - As a result, the overall European market has grown to a value of €1.8bn in 2008 and accounts for 15% of all mobile data revenues.
- However despite its growth, contribution to data revenues and number of subscribers, Ronan de Renesse, Screen Digest mobile analyst expects to see high customer churn rates this year and in 2010.
“The mobile operators have trapped customers into long-term contracts, whilst failing to deliver the unrealistic networks speed that encouraged them to sign up in the first place. The service can be patchy and users become frustrated – many will switch back to fixed broadband if operators don’t act quickly.”
- While European growth is set to reach its lowest in 2010 at only 4.7%, the number of connections will rise again in 2011 and 2012 to reach 22.6m and a total market value of €4.6bn in 2010
Fascinating – the nascent market is going through the explosive growth that Mobile handsets did, and have done, a number times – I really think that Mobile Broadband will eventually become a utility just like many other services – hopefully one that will be ubiquitously available to people too….
You can read more about what Screen Digest do here.
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
