Mobile broadband $137 billion by 2014, but access prices to drop

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 26 March 2009 13:29

IT Industry - Deals

The latest forecasts on the growth of mobile broadband predict revenues of $137 billion globally by 2014 but, despite that, operators will have to content themselves with the fact that user growth will be far faster than actual revenue growth.

In short, the forecast by Ovum is cautioning operators that more users and more data traffic will, nevertheless, mean declining revenues per user (ARPUs).

Newly released mobile broadband forecasts by Ovum show an increase of 450 percent worldwide in revenue through to 2014 compared to revenues in 2008, but its growth forecast for users of mobile broadband services, including 3G and 3G+ technologies, is a staggering 1,024% by 2014 over the number of users last year.
 
Steven Hartley, senior analyst at Ovum and co-author of this latest research report says that the number of users will grow from 181 million in 2008 to over two billion in 2014, with a forecast 258 million accessing mobile broadband services through laptops connected via USB modems, datacards or through embedded mobile modules.
 
Hartley’s fellow co-author, Michele Mackenzie, say says operators can also expect a similar growth rate for handset users of mobile broadband services, but starting from a “much larger existing base.”

“We forecast that handset users will grow from a base of 158 million in 2008 to almost 1.8 billion in 2014.”

According to Ovum, the most aggressive growth in users will come from emerging markets, where the unavailability of fixed broadband offers a major opportunity to mobile broadband players.
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