Overview
A simple explanation for Mobile Broadband is that it’s like having your fixed home broadband experience delivered to your mobile device. Mobile Broadband rivals the performance of fixed broadband technologies and is suitable for a broad range of data applications – including accessing email with attachments, web browsing, multimedia streaming and file downloads – while stationary or on the go.
The last 18 months have seen a huge upswing in the adoption of mobile broadband globally, especially relating to PC connectivity through 3G USB “dongles”, as well as high-end smartphones like the Apple iPhone™. For the mobile industry, Mobile Broadband has been one of the few bright spots, especially in mature markets where the recession (and regulation) has impacted voice and SMS revenues. For many operators, PC-based data revenues have eclipsed lacklustre growth of content and data services on handsets.
There are several technologies competing to deliver commercial Mobile Broadband services. By far the most successful is HSPA, which has been commercially deployed by over 250 operators in more than 100 countries. For a full list of HSPA Mobile Broadband networks please click here.
By 2010, when the number of wireless broadband connections is estimated to reach more than 600 million, HSPA will be the technology behind over 70 percent of Mobile Broadband connections. HSPA is a state-of-the art technology that provides mobile and wireless broadband services for the vast majority of the market, with unsurpassed performance and economies of scale.
The arrival of Mobile Broadband has prompted PC notebook manufacturers to embed cellular modems into their products, as they have done with Bluetooth®. Previous 2G and 2.5G mobile technologies were simply not fast or efficient enough to justify being embedded into notebooks. The GSMA designed the Mobile Broadband Enabled Service Mark to simplify customer communication by quickly and easily conveying to consumers that their devices are Mobile Broadband Enabled. To find out more click here.
To date, over 1,600 HSPA devices have been launched globally. These devices initially included conventional mobile phones, PC Cards and Express Cards and USB ‘dongles’. As device vendors have embraced the technology further we now feature a range of embedded notebooks and consumer electronics. For a full list of HSPA-enabled devices please click here.
Mobile Broadband enabled devices are now proliferating the market, supporting a vast range of consumer and industry applications. These devices are being used to deliver solutions to people and industry in metropolitan and rural areas to a range of sectors including consumer electronics, clean technology, health care, transportation and utilities. The GSMA Embedded Mobile initiative is a GSMA market-development programme designed to accelerate the adoption of wireless connectivity across these sectors. To find out more about the programme please click here.
In order for operators to deliver the Mobile Broadband connectivity that delivers feature rich applications to consumers and industry it is crucial that they can innovate in a defined and stable environment, confident in the security of spectrum allocations. The GSMA actively lobbies governments to fairly allocate spectrum to operators – including spectrum that has been freed up by the Digital Dividend. Please click here to read more about our work in this area.
