Broadband News & Mobile Broadband News

With the worldwide recession impacting fixed line broadband growth, there is still one area that is seemingly unaffected by the current slowdown. Mobile Broadband is apparently more popular now than ever before with growth rates set to continue.

The EITO and GSMA Reports

Both EITO and the GSMA have produced new reports which predict that mobile broadband usage is set to increase during 2009. The rise in popularity is said to be down to new mobile internet applications and also visually appealing handsets being introduced.

EITO predicts the growth rate of mobile data services provided by mobile broadband networks in 2009 will be 16%. Further to this, it is estimated that the wireless communication market in general will also increase by 6.6%.

Free laptop deals (netbooks) are reported to be one of the main contributors towards the growth in mobile broadband services with all of the UK operators now offering mobile broadband free laptop deals.

The GSMA also carried out a recent mobile broadband survey which showed that over one hundred million mobile connections were now for mobile broadband – with the opportunity for mobile broadband to reach and be used by more of the population being quite vast.

With companies being urged to spend money on advertising and marketing to combat the recession, it’s interesting to hear that mobile broadband providers are instead using their budgets to improve their current services.

With more reliable and faster mobile broadband connections expected as a result, the success of mobile broadband is set to continue.

Mobile broadband (wireless broadband internet) is designed to be convenient, fast and reliable. However, in reality that is not always what you are presented with. In fact, many people who use a mobile broadband package notice that the connection often cuts out, is typically slower than expected and it is not overly reliable.

To help overcome this, Ofcom, the UK’s communication watchdog & regulator is consulting on a new proposal to boost mobile broadband, making it as reliable and convenient as it should be. So just what are these new proposed changes?

Freeing Up The Wireless Spectrum

The new proposal, prompted by Lord Carter’s pledge to provide broadband access of up to 2Mbps to all by 2012, focuses upon freeing up a large portion of the 900MHz wireless spectrum band.

Currently there are two 900MHz licensees involved (Vodafone & O2) and the proposal asks that they let go of up to 5MHz each that would be sold at auction.

This would mainly benefit 2G services, however there is also the potential that it will provide a far wider range of 3G services too.

Whilst both O2 and Vodafone agree that changes need to be made, they are hoping for a different solution provided by Kip Meek (the appointed independent government spectrum broker), and the other UK operators.

Discussions are underway between the operators for a possible alternative spectrum plan, with the end of April being the deadline for an alternative proposal.

Overall no matter what is decided, the main objective is to improve & extend the current range of mobile broadband services. If all goes well, by 2012 we should all be able to benefit from high speed, reliable and competitive mobile broadband packages.

T-Mobile has been rated the best mobile broadband network in the UK following independent tests carried out by P3 Solutions, a leading UK test house.

The tests, carried out over the last quarter, measured customer experiences of various mobile broadband networks during peak usage hours across 16 cities throughout the UK.

When measured against its network competitors, T-Mobile was found to be the fastest for internet upload (HSUPA) and download (HSDPA) speeds – plus fastest for web browsing and sending & receiving emails.

Using the T-Mobile mobile broadband network to access the BBC homepage was found to be up to 25% faster than its nearest competitor, while uploading photos and videos to the likes of Facebook and YouTube was 60% faster.

Such positive results for T-Mobile follow the company’s ongoing programme of technology upgrades to its 3G network. This has involved rolling out HSUPA across the UK resulting in a fivefold increase in upload speeds.

The company has also upgraded its HSDPA-enabled 3G network creating mobile broadband download speeds up to 4.5Mbps both within the M25 and other major cities throughout the UK.

T-Mobile has a 22% share of UK mobile broadband market and experienced a 35% increase in mobile broadband sales between Q2 and Q3.

You can find out more on the range of T-Mobile broadband packages available by reading our T-Mobile Broadband review here.