New research predicts that there will be more than one billion people using mobile broadband around the world by 2012. European network’s however, are already insisting that present use is crippling their networks.
Vodafone UK is to double its broadband mobile service to 14.4mbps. An Ofcom survey in March noted three million UK homes had mobile broadband access. A Vodafone spokesperson stated “… we have been concentrating on depth of coverage and quality of the network…as it will help us cope with the demands of news users”.
SFR, the French operator said dongle customers use 450 times as much bandwidth in comparison to those with a classic mobile phone.
The portability of the mobile broadband is popular in most markets and in particular with young adults on the move, who can take their broadband wherever they happen to move instead of paying for fixed line services at homes which they do not intend to be permanent.
In recent months there have been complaints about busy signals and poor areas of network congestion from UK users.
Phil Sayer, principle analyst at Forrester Research, believes the switch-off of the UK’s TV analogue frequency presently in use by BBC, ITV, Channel Four and Five, may prove a significant resolution for the UK network providers. Phil said “it would improve mobile broadband enormously”, he continued “700Mhz is a great frequency for good building penetration. 2.4Ghz [the current frequency used for wireless broadband] is pretty poor”.
The majority of UK network deal are capped. Questioned on this earlier in the year for their cap, O2 stated “it was used as a deterrent and to make sure that others using the network had a good experience”.
Other operators such as Telenor in Norway, slow down and even block connections should it feel that one individual has reached the limit of their bandwidth. A spokesperson for Telenor told Reuters “we have to do this otherwise on a few users will end up straining the whole network”.
The cost of using mobile internet broadband overseas can soar unexpectedly with customers being unaware of the true cost of this use. This has forced the EU in July to introduce a cap on the cost of using this service on networks. The maximum network operators can now charge is one Euro per megabyte.
The debate goes on and we will need to watch, wait and see over the coming months and years to see how the networks are able to manage the ever increasing use of mobile broadband on its phones and laptops.
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