IS THIS THE END FOR FIXED PRICE MOBILE BROADBAND?
Europe will have five million mobile broadband connections by the end of this year, according to Swedish analyst firm Berg Insight, with connections rising to 30 million by 2011.
However, in a world where subscribers can surf unlimited via the mobile web, the industry is questioning the viability of the existing fixed price mobile broadband model, particularly as the rise of social media and web-based applications start to put significant pressure on mobile network capacity.
While the likes of YouTube and Google can deliver content for free via the mobile Internet, the pressure falls on the network provider to ensure adequate capacity and continued high-speed delivery. Considerable investment is required, and the fixed-price mobile broadband model simply does not deliver the revenues required.
For mobile broadband to work for European network operators, they must ensure customer pay for the traffic they use, and charge a premium to carry high-bandwidth applications and services.
For mobile broadband to work for European network operators, they must ensure customer pay for the traffic they use, and charge a premium to carry high-bandwidth applications and services.