The strong and sudden rise of Mobile Broadband (HSPA) services over the past year is fast eclipsing more traditional 'location specific' Wi-Fi Hotspots, reports Point Topic. Unlike Wi-Fi, cell based Mobile Broadband services have a wider coverage and can sometimes even be used as a fixed-line replacement.

UK mobile phone companies have managed to grow their market share to 47% of users accessing the Internet away from home or work, which compares with 42% who prefer Wi-Fi Hotspots. Meanwhile 26% of those who use a mobile network to access the Internet are with O2. Orange and Vodafone each take about 20% of the market. T-Mobile and Three (3) have 14% and 12% respectively:


Customer churn also appears to be low among such services, with just 10% of mobile users expecting to change operator within the next six months. Naturally some of this could be down to longer term contract ties, a limitation that several operators have recently begun to remove:


However the study also claims that it is a lot cheaper to send data over Wi-Fi and, unlike the mobile networks, Wi-Fi has no problems with capacity. To that end Point Topic sees dual-mode operation, with mobile broadband users defaulting to Wi-Fi where it’s available, as the way of the future.

Still, many will be asking why Hotspot operators continue to charge such high prices for data if Wi-Fi is supposedly so much cheaper? This continues to be the greatest challenge for commercial Wi-Fi Hotspot operations, which often seem ignorant of Mobile Broadband’s threat to their model.