In the midst of doom and gloom, mobile broadband has proven to be Australia's beacon of light, with the market doubling in the past year to more than $1 billion.

According to Telsyte, even with rapidly deteriorating consumer and business confidence, Australian mobile service revenue grew by a staggering 12% and average monthly spend per user by almost 5%.

That means mobile broadband has now penetrated 110% of the population, Telsyte estimates.

Telsyte’s Warren Chaisatien says the continued HSPA+ network upgrades, the explosive growth of mobile broadband and the consumerisation of smartphones, were the main drivers behind the Australia’s mobile market's “impressive performance."

"With greater network speeds and a myriad of modern smartphones already in place, 2009 will be about content and applications as we see a proliferation of app stores, resurrection of mobile TV and continued push in the still-nascent mobile advertising space.”

Chaisatien also says that consumer protection will take centre stage this year but, he adds, the highest-profile event to watch will undoubtedly be the proposed joint venture of Vodafone and Hutchison's (3 Mobile) Australian operations.
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