Mobile Broadband Spend up 40%

A new report published by Nokia Siemens shows that monthly spend has increased significantly between 2009 and 2010. The average monthly spend on mobile broadband in Britain, France, Germany and Spain has increased by 40% year on year. The monthly spend is a good indicator of growth as it measure actual usage of new and existing mobile broadband customers.

Nokia Siemens attributed the rise in spend to two factors: "Increased usage of mobile broadband among existing customers and higher penetration of the service in market segments with more disposable income." Bundled offers such as the many free laptop deals are also likely to be an important factor.



The report also found that a quarter of those who do not currently use mobile broadband have considered signing up. 31% of current users with a mobile connection intended to access the internet via mobile broadband more often. Depending on these user's contract this may involve an increased monthly spend.

Interestingly only 27% of those polled accessed the internet via desktop and standard laptop devices, a third of subscribers used a netbook or mini laptop. 25% used smartphones such as the iPhone and HTC Desire or other smart devices such as the new Apple iPad.

Facebook and Google Top Mobile Internet Usage Charts

The GMSA and comScore have released the results of their first Mobile Media Metrics report. The report aims to investigate mobile internet usage including which sites are visited and by how many users. The first report has shown some very interesting usage patterns and statistics. Below is a quote from the GSMA explain how the data is collated:

"The GSMA Mobile Media Metrics service is based on anonymised, census-level data for mobile Internet usage across mobile networks, which is augmented with demographic data that has been collected with the consent of a representative sample of mobile Internet users. The Mobile Media Metrics service provides a rich, aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behaviour, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics, such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and device types and features."

The report discovered that last December about 25% of the UK population accessed the internet via a mobile phone. This is quite a staggering statistic but doesn't come as a huge surprise when you consider that around a fifth of mobile phone subscribers (i.e those on a contract rather than those with a pay as you go mobiles) have a 'smart phone'.

The bulk of the traffic analyzed was unsurprisingly either to Facebook or Google sites. Below is a chart detailing the top 10 sites in terms of minutes spent online via mobile devices (via this Guardian article):

1 Facebook 2.2 bn
2 Google 396m
3 Microsoft Sites 166m
4 Orange Sites 139m
5 AOL (and Bebo) 106m
6 Apple 104m
7 Vodafone 89m
8 BBC sites 84m
9 Flirtomatic 55m
10 Yahoo 49m

Facebook's hits accounted for over a third of all internet visits via mobile phones although the presence of Google at #2 shows that users are going beyond sites they already know.

The State of the Internet

Here, for your reading please, is an interesting infographic about the state of the Internet in 2009. The data and fancy graphics are by Focus.

Edit: the image will not embed properly in Blogger so click here to view it.

Could Mobile Phones Support Economic Growth in Developing Countries?

At the recent CES 2010 show in Las Vegas Nokia's chief Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo suggested that mobile phones could help to improve the lives of those in developing countries. At first this statement seems a bit strange as we often think of mobile phones a a luxury rather than a necessity but it isn't perhaps as far-fetched as it might first seem. The suggestion is that mobile phones can benefit those who live in areas without the necessary infrastructure which we associate with a high quality of life.

40 percent of the world population don't have access to banking with micro-banking via mobile devices this figure could be greatly reduced. There is also the potential to increase literacy and eduction via mobile phones. Imagine if there had been an automated Tsunami warning system which updated people via mobile phones during the boxing day Tsunami of 2004. Imagine if families in remote rural location could be in contact with doctors instantly when someone fell ill.



I wont go into great detail here but one you start to think of mobile devices as mini-computers and a way of keeping in touch across great distances the possibilities are endless. The production costs of basic level phones are low and free SIM cards or pay as you go contracts offer a low cost option. The Skype Mobile on Three lets users communicate free of charge via VOIP so topping up isn't even an issue. The communication infrastructure in developing countries may be lacking but as they are currently the biggest growth market this is set to change.

41 Percent Say That Mobile Broadband is their Main Connection

Considering that mobile broadband has a reputation as a supplementary technology it comes as quite a surprise that 41% of people who took part in a recent Ofcom poll said that it provided their main connection to the internet. Mobile broadband is typically thought of as an additional way of connecting for those on the move but this has clearly changed.



Most mobile broadband users aren't as mobile as you may imagine, infact 78% predominantly use their dongles at home. This shows us that many mobile broadband users do not have a fixed line connection. The benefits of a mobile broadband dongle go beyond portability particularly for those who do not have a phone line or are looking to save money.

According to Ofcom thosed aged 15-34 are most likely to solely use mobile broadband with 1/10 having a contract. Less well off household are also going for the mobile option with those earning less than £11,500 per year often opting for mobile broadband only. Mobile broadband is clearly maintaining its popularity and looks set to overtake fixed line connections by the end of the year.

Londoners Leave 10,000 Mobile Phones in Taxis Per Month

According to a survey commissioned by Credant Technologies each month sees around 10,000 mobile phones left behind in London Taxi cabs. The worst month for phone losses is December as people are more likely to be inebriated enough to not notice their phone slipping out of their pocket. Presumably the reduction in the size of mobile phones make them easier to lose these days.



Many people are lucky enough to be reunited with their phones by a friendly taxi driver. Other will find that the next fare has taken their device never to be seen again. Loosing your mobile phone can be a real hassle and also a cause of concern due to the amount of personal data the average phone contains. If you are a user of pay as you go phones you may loose all your credit as well as your handset. If you have insurance you will be able to get a new handset but what about its contents?

Chances are your mobile phone contains hundreds of photographs, emails and even music tracks that could easily be lost. Even if you have your data backed up at home you are likely to worry about who has your data and what they intend to do with it. If you access social networking sites from your phone its best not to save your passwords unless you want to see somebody else updating your Facebook page. Similarly it is best to log out of applications such as Skype mobile and other IM providers.



The best way to avoid these issues (other than not forgetting your phone) is to keep your phone locked and use a password for access. This also has the benefit of not letting you use your phone unless you are sober enough to put in a password - not more drunk texts! It is also possible to lock or encrypt your memory card so that the data stored on it is safe. There are now applications available which allow you to remotely lock your phone by text message.

Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband Overtakes Fixed Cost

October sales figures have shown that for the first time pay as you go mobile broadband contracts have become more popular than fixed price contacts. According to Broadband-Expert.co.uk 53% of new customers in October chose the pre paid option. This is the first time pay as you go has overtaken fixed usage contracts.

Pay as you go mobile broadband has been increasing in popularity over recent years particularly with infrequent internet users. The ability to only pay for usage rather than fixed monthly fee means that the contracts, like those of pay as you go phones, tend to work out cheaper. They also offer an alternative to the 12-24 month contracts often necessary for prepaid mobile broadband.

Recent years have seen an increase in 'light users' who only go on line occasionally to check their email or use Ebay etc. For these people a fixed line broadband connection is an unnecessary expense and mobile broadband a suitable alternative. Pay as go go offers the most competitive deals and has seen its popularity rise during the recession.

Business Mobile Broadband Sector Continues to Grow

The first section on the population to fully embrace mobile broadband was business users. Portable dongles were originally aimed at those who spend their life on the road going to meetings and needing to check and send documents on the move. A recent report by ABI Research has predicted that business take up will continue to grow despite the state of the economy.

ABI expect business subscriptions to increase by 17% next year despite many companies having to cut back on outgoings. It seems that mobile broadband is considered a necessity rather than a luxury. Eastern Europe and the Middle East have been highlighted as key areas for growth of the mobile data business market. Even subscriptions in the UK are expected to continue to rise in the coming years despite the recession.

Mobile Broadband is Mostly Being Used at Home as an Alternative to a Fixed Line

Mobile broadband used to be mostly sold as a portable way to access the internet. Before the Blackberry became popular having a pay as you go mobile broadband dongle meant that you could check your emails when you were out of the office or on a train. Business men and women where the core market and you certainly didn't get a free laptop.

Recent research by Virgin Media has shown that 78% of their mobile broadband customers predominantly use their dongles at home. This shows how the mobile broadband market has changed; these days it is often seen as a cheaper and easier alternative to having a phone line. Why pay to have a phone line installed and then pay a monthly fee if you have an inclusive mobile phone contract? Why buy a laptop when you can get one for free with mobile broadband?

There are of course reasons why some people stick with fixed line broadband (lets not get into that debate now). People who rent or don't have much of a disposable income are increasingly choosing the mobile option. The fact that they aren't being as mobile with their laptop doesn't surprise me, particularly with the rise in Smart Phones that have a decent 3g connection.

Carphone Warehouse CEO Charles Dunstone Says that 'Mobile Broadband has Peaked'

The CEO of The Carphone Warehouse (and Talk Talk) Charles Dunstone believes that Mobile Broadband 'has peaked' and is being deserted by consumers. Speaking to The Guardian he said that:

"We get a sense that the mobile broadband thing has peaked. We are seeing some of those people begin to realise that the bandwidth you get on mobile is so much less than you get on a fixed line. Mobile broadband is increasingly a supplementary rather than a substitutional thing, and an increasing proportion of Carphone sales are of pre-pay dongles."

I was amazed to read this particularly after a report released earlier in the week stated that mobile connections are set to overtake fixed line subscriptions by the end of the year. As I mentioned on Twitter Mobile Broadband take up has doubled in the past year alone which makes Dunstone's comments seem at best misinformed.

He makes a good point about a lot of mobile dongle sales being to fixed line customers but the suggestion that mobile broadband has peaked seems way off. Those of us who have grown up with mobile phones see little point in having a landline and if mobile broadband speeds increase it could do serious damage to sales of traditional broadband subscriptions.

Some of the networks are clearly struggling to cope with infrastructure not yet ready for so many connections and will be forced to improve. The pay as you go mobile broadband market is very competitive so whom ever can offer their customers the best speeds and most reliable connection is set to do well.

I would be very interested to see any statistics Mr Dunstone can provide to back up his argument. As ISP Review says "every other piece of research we've seen has appeared to communicate the opposite conclusion."

Mobile Broadband to Overtake Fixed Line Connections by The End of the Year

Mobile broadband subscriptions (including high speed internet connections on mobile phones) are expected to reach 600 million by the end of the year. Fixed line subscriptions look set to reach 500 Million. That means for the first time ever there will be more mobile broadband connections than those operating via a phone line.



The scale of mobile broadband take-up is staggering, the International Telecoms Union reported a 50% increase in subscriptions over the last year alone. Mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 4.6 Billion by the end of the year so clearly the percentage of mobile phones with high speed internet access remains low. Pay as you go mobile broadband and free laptop deals continue to grow in popularity.

the increase in connections could be negative for the consumer in the short term but will lead to improvements in infrastructure likely to benefit all users in the long term. Increased demand will see the current 3g infrastructure strained but improvements will be made. Whilst even the best mobile broadband can fall behind fixed line in terms of speed consumers will expect improvements and providers will be looking to proved them.

Students Boost Pay As You Go Mobile Broadband Sales

Pay as you go mobile broadband is perfect for students. Having a fixed line connection in rented accommodation is expensive and can be a pain to organize so mobile broadband is an obvious choice. A pay-as-you-go contract means not having to pay for anything other than what you use, no point paying for mobile broadband during the summer if your parents have a traditional fixed line broadband connection after all.



Tesco's Telecoms division has just reported that they have seen a 71% increase in takeup for their flexible pay as you go mobile broadband which coinsided with the begining of the University year. Tesco sells mobile broadband contracts with a selection of providers including Orange and O2 including pay as you go and pay monthly contracts.

3 Billion Mobile Broadband Users by 2014?

There could be 3 billion mobile broadband subscribers by the year 2014 according to the CEO of telecoms company Ericsson. Hans Vestberg was speaking at the Broadband World Forum in Paris when he made the prediction. Vestberg says that although mobile broadband is only in 1 in 10 homes so far Ericsson are expecting this figure to rise dramatically.

"It's a fantastic growth we can see in front of us"

Mr Vestberg added that "there are currently four billion mobile phone users and that this is likely to rise by three billion in the next five years". The stats quoted include multiple those who own multiple SIMs taking into account the fact that some households have several mobile phones, pay as you go mobile broadband and traditional fixed line broadband.

3 announces 170 per cent rise in mobile broadband subscriptions

The telecoms provider Three has recently announced that it has seen a 170% increase in new mobile broadband subscriptions for the first half of 2009. The company currently has 3.8 million mobile broadband customers between their fixed monthly and pay as you go options.

Three's revenue has increased by 2% making them one of the only major broadband companies to record a profit this year. It seems that only the best mobile broadband offers will attract customers during a recession. The average spend of most of Three's customers has gone down but they have attracted new customers to their mobile broadband offering.

50 Million Mobile Broadband Users Predicted in the Middle East by 2013

Mobile phone ownership rates are high in the Middle East and rising fast, in the UAE for example the penetration rate is 198.6 percent meaning there are on average two handsets per person. The latest worldwide success story in the telecoms world is undoubtedly mobile broadband and predictably it is taking off fast in the Middle East.



It has recently been predicted by Informa Telecoms & Media that mobile broadband subscription levels in the region could reach 50 million by 2013. To put this is perspective this would be more people connecting via a mobile broadband dongle than currently connect by any method.

"In the MEA region, there is no doubt that mobile broadband adoption will grow faster than the global average. We have observed that in some of the regional markets, mobile broadband services are attracting the majority of net additions. Very soon, mobile broadband will become the preferred option to access the internet, and I would estimate that by 2015 the total number of subscribers will reach 50 million."

Zoran Vasiljev of Value Partners

The lack of infrastructure in the Middle East means that mobile broadband is seen as a good alternative to a fixed line connection. As the coverage levels and speeds increase data traffic is expected to raise by 1,587 percent. The flexibility and portability of the best mobile broadband packages make them a big hit with business customers in the east.

"Mobile broadband has been a true success story over the past two to three years, and mobile data and wireless subscriptions will overtake fixed line data subscriptions in both numbers of customers and in revenue. The ever-growing and unmet demand for access coupled with lack of fixed infrastructure investments (improvements) have contributed to this trend and I do not see this changing or reversing. Demand for mobile broadband will exceed that of fixed line services."

The report also suggests that mobile broadband subscriptions will overtake fixed line connections globally by the year 2011. 65% of connections are expected to be mobile by 2013.

Television Channels Try Free Content As Online TV Usage Increasing

Another day, another broadband study, this time about those who watch television programs online. For those of us who are old enough to remember dial-up watching full length TV programs online without any significant loading time still seems amazing. Now that speeds have increased around 15% of those 'with a reliable broadband connection' use the BBC's iPlayer service to watch programs online.



Television channels are starting to realize that they need to put their content online for free in order to reach viewers who are watching less television. They know that if they don't offer their content online somebody else will and they might as well be getting the ad revenue. Channel 4 have recently put a large percentage of their back catalog online via their 4OD service after failed experiments with an online pay-per-view service.

The stats from this study would seem to contradict those of a recent study by YouGov into online viewing. 53% of those asked by YouGov said that they would not watch more online TV even if they had a faster, more reliable connection. Whatever the stats say it seems to me that the idea of watching a program at a fixed time via a television will one day seem as old fashioned as dial-up.

Broadband Increasingly Popular in Rural Wales

Ofcom's recent survey showed that broadband take up has continued to increase despite the recession. Connections are up 10% from last year with around 68% of households being online and 1 in 10 having a mobile broadband contract. The stats for Wales show an even bigger increase in connections with 30% more households getting online within the past 12 months.

Those in rural Wales are slightly more keen with 60% having a broadband connection compared to 58% of city dwellers. This goes to show that broadband coverage is perhaps more wide ranging than previously thought. Ofcom's coverage maps would seem to suggest that most of rural Wales is not covered by a 3G signal from any of the main providers. Despite this 11% of the Welsh population are using mobile broadband including those outside of the main urban areas.

Consumers Choose Mobile Broadband Over Holidays and New Clothes.

Ofcom have released the results of their latest survey and once again it shows just how popular broadband had become. The results show that whilst the Recession has affected people's spending habits a broadband connection is still seen as a necessity rather than a luxury. Consumers were asked what they had cut back on in order to save money in these economically tough times and most were unwilling to give up their internet connection entirely.



47% of those who responded to the survey said that the would cut back on going out for dinner and 41% said they would cut back on holidays in order to save. A quarter said that they would spend less on new clothes and 19% planned to spend less on their mobile phone. In contrast only 10% planned to cut back on broadband.

Around 68% of households now have a broadband connection, up 10% from last year. Mobile Broadband is the fastest growing sector with around a quarter of a million new connections this May alone. This means that just over 1 in 10 households now have a mobile broadband contract which is amazing when you consider that the technology is only a few years old.

The perceived lack of money means that consumers are becoming increasingly interested in getting better deals particularly when it comes to long term pay as you go mobile broadband packages. This will no doubt benefit those with the best mobile broadband packages but those who's offers are less competitive stand to lose out.

Can Mobile Broadband Help The Govenment Provide 'Broadband For All'?

The Government has pledged to provide 'broadband for all' by 2012 as part of the Digital Britain project. They believe that broadband is essential for everyone from school children to big business in order to strengthen the economy and reduce poverty. Children from homes without an internet connection tend to get, on average, lower grades. Businesses need fast connections in order to compete with the global market.

At the recent Broadband For All seminar Phil Sheppard, who is the Director of Technical Solutions at Three, said that he believes that Mobile Broadband can be used to get the country connected. He suggested that if Mobile Broadband providers were given access to more of the digital spectrum they would be able to create enough high-speed coverage to help the Government to reach their goal.

“Mobile Broadband tends to be capable and commercially capable of providing the 2Mbps broadband universal service commitment and is an extremely efficient way of doing it. It is very cost effective, it actually doesn’t need government funding, what it needs is access to spectrum, that’s the key”.

The allocation of empty areas of the spectrum (such as that which will be freed up by the switch from analogue television) is causing a lot of debate amongst mobile broadband companies. Hopefully the Government and the Digital Britain Group will take the bait and work with the providers to increase coverage and speed. Those in rural areas could benefit greatly if more of the digital spectrum is given over to Mobile Broadband.

American Mobile Broadband Usage Rises

As I have mentioned previously Mobile Broadband has taken off in a big way. An increasingly large percentage of the population connects via a mobile device and the demographic continues to widen. Until now there has been less information available about mobile broadband take-up in America. A new report from the Pew Research Center has changed that.

The report shows that mobile connections are continuing to increase in popularity in the USA. Around 56 percent of American Adults have used a mobile connection in 2009 in 2007 this figure was around 25 percent. It is worth noting that the research includes connections via 3G mobile devices for instance high-end mobile phones. The launch of the iPhone has helped to popularize internet enabled portable devices and gone part of the way to banishing the terrible memories of WAP connection and tiny screens.

"Mobile access strengthens the three pillars of online engagement: connecting with others, satisfying information queries and sharing content with others" - John B. Horrigan of the Pew Project

19 percent of Americans questioned said that they use a mobile internet device (either a cell phone or a mobile broadband enabled laptop) on a daily basis. The fact that the best mobile broadband offers continue to decrease in price and the availability of good pay as you go mobile broadband with greater coverage means that these figures are likely to increase. Good internet access is becoming the number one selling point for new mobile phones and the technology is improving rapidly. I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year two thirds of Americans had connected via a mobile device at some point.