The latest Analysys Mason forecast has predicted that there will be 148 million Mobile Broadband (3G, HSPA) connections in Europe by 2014, when they will account for almost half of all broadband connections in the region.

It's expected that prepaid (pay as you go) Mobile Broadband subscriptions will account for the majority (59%) of connections in 2014, up from just 8% in 2008:


Mobile Broadband is expected to generate service revenue of £20.3bn in Europe in 2014, compared with £5.3bn in 2008; a compound annual growth (CAG) rate of 46%. It will also account for 5.7% of all telecoms service revenue in Europe by the end of the forecast period, up from 1.7% in 2008.

The news is further supported by our own government’s apparent attempts to use Mobile Broadband as a golden solution for delivery of universal 2Mbps broadband connections around the UK. It's a nice idea but won't work unless future capacity cost, connection reliability and raw coverage problems can be addressed.

I’ve yet to experience a stable 1Mbps on my own Vodafone USB stick (violently fluctuating speeds) and that's in areas of good coverage. Beats dialup into the ground though.