Spending on mobile broadband up 40% year on year

A study into mobile broadband usage across Europe has shown a 40% rise on usage from 2009 and the majority of use is from devices smaller than a laptop, with a quarter on smartphones and smart devices.

Nokia Siemens Networks’ Mobile Broadband Study 2010 has reported a 40% increase in average monthly spend on mobile broadband compared to 2009. The study attributes the increase to a rise in the use of mobile broadband among existing customers and a higher penetration of the service in market segments with more disposable income. Added to this, the study also points to the wider availability of bundled or subsidised offers for laptops and netbooks.

The majority of mobile broadband users in France, Germany, Spain and the UK want a better mobile broadband experience – faster data speeds, improved quality and better coverage. For a better experience, more than half of the respondents (58%) were interested in high-speed mobile broadband and 30% were even willing to pay a premium for it. The majority of users also said they would be interested in LTE as a preferred next step for improved broadband.

Almost a third of users said they intend to spend more time accessing the Internet via mobile broadband (31%), while a quarter of non-mobile broadband users expressed interest in taking it up.

The study also found that about 80% of the users accessed the Internet with a mobile broadband connection from home. According to the study, about half of the mobile broadband subscribers use mobile broadband on the go, and one in five fixed broadband users is looking to move to mobile broadband. This highlights that mobility remains an important aspect in Internet consumption.

The importance of mobility is further underscored by the finding that subscribers are more likely to use smaller devices, such as mini laptops/netbooks (34%), smartphones and smart devices (25%) to access mobile broadband, compared to PCs (27%) and standard laptops.

“The study highlights that demand for mobile broadband is rapidly increasing due to its potential to deliver the connected experience people want, wherever they are,” said Beppe Donagemma, head of West & South Europe, Nokia Siemens Networks. “However, the quality of experience needs to improve to increase adoption. Operators need to prepare their networks to handle future volume and data traffic types to sustain mobile broadband growth.”

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