Has Mobile Broadband peaked?
It seems a fairly bold statement to say the least from Carphone Warehouse’s chief executive Charles Dunstone,
“We get a sense that the mobile broadband thing has peaked. We are seeing some of those people begin to realise that the bandwidth you get on mobile is so much less than you get on a fixed line.”
The company’s direction has clearly moved toward fixed broadband, so such statements are in line with the direction that they’re taking, but peaked? Maybe it’s a reaction to the news that Talk Talk, Carphone’s fixed-line business, has seen further growth for the second quarter running. Even so, the point on which this story gets into trouble is highlighted by Broadband Genie,
“[…] few would argue that mobile broadband was ever really mooted as a replacement for fixed-line alternatives - yet, anyway.”
As the mobile industry progresses though this possibility is certainly beginning to increase in size on the mobile data horizon. In opposition of Dunstone’s comments is Andrew Cowie’s post at the Guardian, contemplating an entirely different perspective,
“Is it time to lose the landline and just have a mobile phone for calls and a 3G broadband dongle for the internet?”
The argument for one or the other is currently settled on issues of coverage and what it is you do online… but will one eventually marginalise the other?
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Craig Richards, October 13th, 2009 at 7:15 am
I can see that mobile broadband will continue getting faster and more popular. More and more now you are seeing people with mobile broadband dongles. Several people I know have snapped up the deals with the mobile broadband and laptop deals as they don’t want to be restricted to using the internet at home, they want access to online content where ever they travel. Also with the new mifi that has been released by 3, it proves the market needed a device like this. As it does get more popular the cost will reduce even further, it is already very reasonable for mobile broadband.
sam, October 13th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Hi Craig,
Thanks for your thoughts. I tend to agree with you, I can only see mobile broadband becoming more prevalent as the hardware improves and the costs involved reduce. Add to that a user base ever more reliant and confident working from a ‘mobile office’ driving demand and you’ve got a service people will not want to be without.
Sam.
Simon Grant, October 13th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Once the mobile broadband infrastructure is overhauled there will be no stopping it in my opinion. The only thing holding it back is limits on coverage and speed, once these issues are solved for a higher percentage of users I think mobile broadband will grow even quicker.
As I mentioned in a blog post about the subject (http://bit.ly/PpEE7) the number of mobile broadband subscriptions has doubled in the last year. I’m not sure what Mr Dunstone stands to gain from his comments but he must know that the figures don’t back him up.