New research from analyst firm Berg Insight has predicted that the European mobile broadband market will reach 5 million connections by the end of this year, with a staggering 30 million expected for 2011!:


The scale of such figures suggest a future where existing Wi-Fi Hotspot services could find themselves under significant threat from mobile phone operators. This might help to explain some of the recent price reductions we've been seeing, a competitive factor that could become more aggressive in the future.

However it's not just Wi-Fi that may face such pressure, any advent of affordable mobile broadband technology could also impact upon fixed-line rivals. Presently mobile services are unable to compete, especially on bandwidth allowance, but that may not always be the case.