Heard on the Street
Industry experts hail the challenges and opportunities of the mobile Internet.
The US wireless business market will grow from 78 million subscribers today to more than 90 million by 2013, notes a new report from Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, and Mobile Enterprise Magazine.
The Boston Globe
February 11, 2010
Cisco forecasts that by 2014 we will be using 3.6 exabytes a month on mobile networks worldwide, according to its Visual Networking Index figures released today. (For those pondering an exabyte, it’s equal to 1 billion gigabytes or half a trillion MP3 files.) And by 2014, we’re apparently going to be sucking down 40 exabytes annually from our mobile broadband networks, up from a total of 1.08 exabytes in all of 2009.
GigaOm
February 9, 2010
For example, today, the average mobile broadband connection generates 1.3 gigabytes of traffic per month — while consumers using mobile broadband via a data card pay around $60 a month for a 5 GB-chunk of access. By 2014, the average mobile broadband connection will generate 7 GB of traffic per month, which means that operators are going to have to revamp their pricing plans while also lowering the costs associated with sending bits through their networks in order to keep margins up.
GigaOm
February 9, 2010
The Pentagon and broadcast networks can expect continuing pressure to turn over some of their spectrum to make more airwaves available to the private sector. According to Cisco Systems' annual Visual Networking Index, released Feb. 9, global mobile data traffic increased 160 percent in 2009 to 90 petabytes per month. Cisco predicted that "annual global mobile data traffic will reach 3.6 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 40 exabytes by 2014," and noted that such traffic "is growing today 2.4 times faster than global fixed broadband data traffic.
eWeek
February 9, 2010
Facing a deluge of Web and video traffic that is pushing the limits of their networks, big wireless carriers are resorting to software shortcuts and other tricks to streamline data traffic even as they can install more cellular towers and roll out next-generation networks. Armed with advanced devices like BlackBerrys, iPhones and Apple Inc.'s coming iPad, more customers are using cellular networks to surf the Web, watch video clips and run apps. While the data traffic means a new and growing source of revenue, managing that rapid growth has been challenging.
The Wall Street Journal
February 2, 2010
AT&T said that it has seen wireless data usage jump by nearly 5,000% in the three years from mid-2006. Much of that has been driven by the popularity of the iPhone. Because of its larger screen and faster processor, the iPad could spur even more downloads, putting even more strain on AT&T's network, analysts and people in the wireless industry said. "The opportunity for network congestion is extraordinary," said Bernstein's Mr. Moffett.
The Wall Street Journal
January 28, 2010
The growing popularity of smartphones and high-speed wireless broadband networks are proving to be two major catalysts for the wireless industry. As a result, expect its revenues to barrel past the $1 trillion-mark by 2013, says Informa Telecom’s & Media, a London-based market research group. That compares to revenues of $208 billion in 2008 and $330 billion in 2009. By 2014, global mobile penetration will hit 92 percent with about 6.7 billion subscribers, the firm predicts.
GigaOm
January 15, 2010
This year may well be the year that wireless operators adopt usage-based pricing models for their heavy-volume mobile data users, according to analyst firm Deloitte. With smartphone traffic eating up increasing amounts of data capacity and a small percentage of those users hogging the largest percentage of that bandwidth, carriers have little choice but to abandon their all-you-can-eat smartphone data plans and implement pricing models more equitable to all of their customers, said Phil Asmundson, Deloitte vice chairman and leader of the firm’s US technology, media and telecommunications group.
Telephony Online
January 7, 2010
The growing consumer demand for data-heavy services will put greater pressure on networks, with flat rate data tariffs increasingly subjected to stringent download limits.
Mobile Marketing Magazine
December 23, 2009
As Apple iPhones and similar devices encourage 3G adoption and growing consumer use of a range of IP-based usage models over various mobile devices, Morgan Stanley expects smartphone sales to surpass the global notebook and netbook market in 2010, and to surpass the global, overall PC market in 2012.
eWeek
December 17, 2009
Carriers' spectrum resources are limited and if these users hog up the capacity, this means less access for others," noted Bill Ho, research director of wireless services at Current Analysis. "This presents a problem with user experience, increases dissatisfaction and ultimately forces a carrier to increase expenses to meet this need.
Mobile Marketing Daily
December 10, 2009
Driven by the popularity and affordability of mobile phones, smartphones, and other wireless devices, IDC's Worldwide Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast (an IDC Database service) expects the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet to surpass the one billion mark over the next four years.
Cellular-News
December 9, 2009
Laptops are still consuming most of the data on carrier networks that don’t have iPhones on them, but once folks get a touch-based smartphone such as the iPhone (and right now it’s the most popular touch-based smartphone out there), the volume of data used by those devices far exceeds that of laptop usage. In other words, when it comes to the network and data consumption, the device does matter.
GigaOm
November 19, 2009
According to new research by GSM Association (GSMA), the penetration of mobile broadband connection has risen dramatically over the past year, the growth rate is around 66% which means more than nine million of new HSPA broadband subscribers are being added globally every month. And 33% of them are coming from Europe and Asia Pacific. The research also predicts that there will be another 27 million HSPA subscriber by the end of 2009, with regions such as Africa, Eastern Europe and the Americas set to see the biggest growth.
Trendy Gadget
November 13, 2009
The number of subscribers accessing social networking sites via mobile device will grow to 607.5 million worldwide by 2013, representing 43 percent of global mobile web users, according to a new forecast issued by eMarketer.
Fierce Mobile Content
November 13, 2009
Mobile internet usage is being driven by Smartphone owners – in particular, Apple iPhone owners. Three-quarters of iPhone owners use the internet on their phone every day," comments Paul Brown, Senior User Experience Analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Reuters
November 4, 2009
Analyst Christopher Dodge adds, "Mobile internet browsing time is also on the rise. Compared to 2008, respondents spend a greater proportion of their time visiting non-operator portals, social network sites and tools and utilities on their mobile phone.
Reuters
November 4, 2009
The number of people accessing the net on mobile phones could soon outstrip the capacity of networks, experts warn.
BBC News
October 26, 2009
Revenues from data are increasing much slower than traffic," said Dimitris Mavrakis, mobile network analyst from Informa. "Where operators are experiencing exploding data traffic, revenues are not following them.
BBC News
October 26, 2009
Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker said today that the tech economy is in a state of recovery, based on the leading indicators that usually signal an end to recession. She was also bullish that a huge shift will come about as the mobile Internet… The shift to the mobile web is no less than a new computing cycle, such as the shift from mainframes to minicomputers, from minicomputers to PCs, from PCs to the web and laptops. Each time one of those shifts happens, the number of users increases tenfold… All of these trends toward mobile Internet expansion will cause huge shifts in wealth creation, Meeker said. In each major computing shift, new winners emerge, and the incumbents fade away.
VentureBeat
October 20, 2009
No doubt about it, a massive data explosion is under way. Data cards, smartphones, application stores, eReaders, netbooks and more — they’re all feeding the frenzy. On the network side, operators are responding with upgrades and migration to next-generation technologies. But all of this emphasis on data and connected devices begs the question: Will operators be ready for the onslaught that is sure to come? Is it possible they will get caught in the crosshairs, similar to what AT&T experienced with bandwidth-hungry iPhone users?
Wireless Week
October 10, 2009
As more people get access to the Internet over mobile phone networks using laptops with 3G cards, or with smartphones like iPhones or BlackBerries, data traffic is doubling every six months globally and growing even more rapidly in some countries… Yet as traffic explodes, revenue from these new services is failing to keep up because of the intense pressure on prices. As a result, investments to improve networks could squeeze profit even further. “Mobile broadband is manna from heaven for consumers, but it is hell for operators,” said John Strand, a consultant to mobile operators… “If they don’t manage this moment carefully, some mobile operators will run into major problems that threaten their very profitability and viability. Some may not survive.”
Reuters/International Herald Tribune
September 30, 2009
Recently, researchers at the Nielsen Norman Group put the mobile web to the test in a usability study that looked at twenty different web sites on six different types of handsets. The results? The mobile web still leaves a lot to be desired. It’s so bad, in fact, that principal researcher Jakob Nielsen, co-author of the study, compared today’s mobile web to the web sites of the early 90’s. But is the mobile web really to blame here for the usability issues? Or is this just a matter of people trying to surf a web that has evolved beyond what traditional cell phones and their awful built-in browsers can handle?
ReadWriteWeb
September 21, 2009
While 60 percent of users surveyed by Yankee Group say they are interested in mobile Internet access, just 3 percent say they are anxiously awaiting 4G and 43 percent say they have heard the term “4G” but don’t understand what it means. That disconnect is just one hurdle service providers must overcome before they can successfully reap the promise of 4G and the mobile Internet. Service providers must overhaul their infrastructure. “In addition to moving to all-IP cores, service providers must adopt holistic strategies to transform their entire network, IT and operational ecosystems,” says Phil Marshall, senior research fellow and author of the report. “Service providers must capitalize on the mobile Internet or perish.”
Yankee Group
September 15, 2009
The current mobile infrastructure as a whole is not well architected for data, the “architecture is wrong.”… In a nutshell, the current solution doesn’t scale well, forcing mobile phone providers to purchase a lot of expensive equipment just to sustain the “tsunami” of data flowing through the core network. Unfortunately, this exponential deluge of data means that it is a losing proposition for mobile providers that typically sell data packages at a flat monthly rate and is a somber reality faced by mobile operators around the world.
Techrepublic.com
September 10, 2009
Two-thirds of Americans now own a video-enabled mobile device, including iPods, cell phones, and laptop computers, up from less than half three years ago… But the new research finds there are very different patterns of video consumption among the devices that more or less seem to follow their screen size. While 42.6% of users of all the devices said they use them to actually watch video, the percentages vary markedly by device: 35.1% of laptop owners say they have used them to view video vs. only 15.3% of video iPod users, and 4.6% of cell phone users.
MediaPost
September 2, 2009
The demand for more bandwidth is coming from the rapid growth of video traffic and the use of the mobile Internet.
eWeek
August 25, 2009
Global revenue for wireless data services (excluding messaging) is projected to grow by 26.2 percent in 2009 to $87.7 billion according to a new forecast issued by research firm iSuppli, which anticipates that figure will grow to $188 billion by 2013. By comparison, iSuppli forecasts total global revenues for all wireless operator services will remain roughly flat at approximately $866 billion in 2009. The report contends that data revenue growth hinges on operators building strategies predicated on four key tentpoles: Monetizing broadband access [hyperlink to Market Analytics page], cooperating with the mobile value chain to develop and offer compelling apps and content, offering revenue-generating services that capitalize on consumer mobility, and leveraging mature billing capabilities and subscriber trust.
FierceMobileContent
August 13, 2009
The model of paying a flat $30-a-month rate for data service on a high usage device like the iPhone is likely going away. Carriers are trying to find ways to introduce more tiers and more premium services.
