Broadband homes will be mobile-only

Fixed operators need to come up with strategies for dealing with a rapid and invasive expansion of mobile broadband into their core growth area, broadband, according to a new report, Mobile broadband: another substitution threat for fixed operators?, published by Analysys Mason, the advisers on telecoms, IT and digital media.

The report forecasts that by 2013, 47% of European broadband subscriptions will use mobile networks and nearly a quarter of broadband-equipped sites will use mobile-only. The speed of take-up of broadband via mobile USB modems has surprised many in the fixed broadband business – and, indeed, the mobile business – and the early indications are that consumers in Europe are using mobile broadband as a substitute for fixed. DSL subscriber net additions are drying up, and headline prices for mobile broadband are frequently lower than those for DSL.

Mobile broadband is an opportunity that MNOs cannot afford to miss, but they face some difficulties in keeping the momentum going. While increasing the capacity of networks is essential to avoid reductions in service quality, MNOs need to dissociate rises in network costs from the exponential increases in bandwidth demands that have already been seen. This will involve access network upgrades, but also, crucially, the transformation of legacy backhaul to an aggregated IP infrastructure.

“In the shorter term, MNOs need to manage customer traffic volumes at a retail level, selling to the kind of customers who will not put excessive pressure on the networks,” says Matt Hatton, Principal Analyst specialising in mobile broadband at Analysys Mason.