By: MarkJ - 3 November, 2009 (1:23 PM) - Score: 1469 - Fixed Line Broadband, Mobile Broadband

The latest 'Taking Internet Mobile' report from mobileSQUARED has estimated that Mobile Broadband connections in the UK will exceed fixed-line broadband connections in 2011. However this is based on research that lumps all 3G connected devices into the same bag, which is misleading. Consumer Mobile Broadband services are often significantly different from 3G based mobile phone contracts.

To elaborate, the report finds that - by 2011 - the number of active 3G devices in the UK will be 36.3 million, as well as 6.4 million dongles/embedded devices, taking the total number of Mobile Broadband connections to 42.7 million versus expected broadband Internet users of 42.5 million.

Happily the report does acknowledge that not all of the 3G connections in 2011 will be used for surfing. It forecasts that the number of mobile Internet users will top 32 million by 2014 (90% of 3G subscribers). Interestingly the report suggests that this figure would be arrived at sooner if operators had clearer and more flexible pricing.


This is another example of how true Mobile Broadband connections differ from their 3G phone based counterparts. Mobile phone tariff's remain overly complicated and confusing, while most Mobile Broadband based USB Modem packages include relatively clear and simple usage allowances / costing.