Massive growth in mobile broadband

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 23 July 2009 10:16

Your IT - Home IT

Jotischky reports that the spread of the iPhone continues to boost data usage for those mobile operators that distribute the model with O2 reporting that 40 percent of its data traffic in the UK comes from the smartphone market.

“Once the preserve of the corporate segment, the consumer market is now driving the evolution of the mobile data market, Jotischky reports, even though he says the value of the global data market has decreased by 1.8% in the last quarter.

Jotischky explains that the main cause of this fall in the value of the data market is “global currency exchange volatility,” and, he adds, “mobile operators cannot afford to overlook the effects of the economic downturn on consumer spending and especially the discretionary spend of data services.

“Moreover, intense competition and the introduction of bundled offers in order to limit churn has resulted in decreasing SMS revenues for many operators despite an actual rise in traffic.

“Whilst all data services, be they messaging, entertainment, internet or mobile banking services are becoming more central to mobile operator strategies, they are often more successful as retention tools and differentiators than actual revenue generators.”