High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Broadband

Optus has seen a huge growth of 240% in mobile broadband customers over the last 12 months and a growth in 3G services of  43%. On the back of this, Optus has agreed to purchase additional 3G spectrum which, if approved, will double the spectrum available for mobile services in capital cities.

The deal is subject to approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The managing director of Optus Products and Delivery, Andrew Buay, said Optus would use the additional spectrum “to support retail and wholesale customer demand for Optus’ increasing range of data services.”

A 3G capable Skype for iPhone app is on the horizon according to Skype representative Peter Parkes and posted on the Skype blog.

It’s thanks to the iPad as Apple have updated the Software Development Kit for the new iPad which removes restrictions on making VOIP calls over 3G mobile broadband.

The app isn’t available just yet. Skype are holding out until they can deliver the best audio quality.

As for Skype for iPad we’ll be hearing about that “in due course”.

More details are emerging about the Apple iPad that were glossed over in the launch or at least the impact of which wasn’t fully realised at the time.

Recent discussion has been on the new form factor for the SIM card which goes into the iPad. It’s quite a bit smaller than the SIM cards currently used in mobile phones. Telstra, Optus and VHA have all confirmed that they will stock the micro SIMS so that they can sell the 3G version of the iPad.

This is all very well but it means that consumers won’t be able to switch between an iPhone and an iPad by using the same SIM card and the therefore same data plan. It is thought that there will be quite a bit of resistance to purchasing another monthly plan for a device like the iPad by those who already have an existing mobile broadband plan.

The manufacturer of the micro SIM has said that the difference between the existing SIM standard and the new micro form is the amount of plastic surrounding the card’s chip. It is envisaged that people will have a go cutting SIMs down to the required size to fit in the iPad. Apparently punches to accomplish this very task are already being manufactured in China.

There is quite a bit of cynicism around as to why Apple chose to go with the micro SIM instead of the standard size. The Apple iPad will be sold unlocked but the choice of carrier will nevertheless be restricted to those who stock the micro-SIM. In Australia, all main providers have said that they will do this. Initially in the US, only Apple’s telco partner AT&T will be ready with the new SIM form, hence the cynicism. It might all be a non issue in a few months however as all carriers and handset makers are apparently switching to this standard. Apple are just getting in early.

The paradox is that at the same time as we’re bombarded with research on the huge growth of mobile Internet, the reality is that the majority of people don’t actually use it or see a need for it.

It’s true that mobile Internet is growing at a fast rate but we’re at the very beginning of the huge trend upwards. The figures tell the story that it’s not yet part of people’s lives. That is unless you’re in the 16-34 demographic with a higher than average salary, you live in the city and you use social media extensively such a Facebook or Twitter. These people make up the bulk of the current adopters of mobile Internet.

Recent research in Britain told the story about the reluctance of the majority to embrace mobile Internet.
According to their data, 76% of mobile phone users in the UK never use their phone to connect to the Internet. The reasons they gave are interesting. 60% said that it was because their phone wasn’t capable of connecting to the Internet. In fact, this wasn’t true. 90% of these had Internet connectivity but were unaware if it. The other main reasons given for not using mobile Internet were that it is too expensive, too difficult to use and there wasn’t enough incentive to learn how to use it.

Mobile Internet needs to save people money or time and it needs to be easy to use. A good example of a device facilitating this is the iPhone which is fun and easy to use. As more devices come on the market at an affordable price, coupled with suitable mobile broadband plans, the demographics of mobile Internet users will start to change.

Internode have announced a MiFi product which lets users combine a 3G broadband modem with a wireless access point. The device is $349 per unit unlocked and with no contract requirement. This is a launch special. The standard price will be $399 with the option of $299 when bundled with a 24-month wireless broadband plan from Internode.

A Mi-Fi device is small and light, smaller than a pack of cards. It’s an easy way to create your own portable, wireless hotspot so that a 3G mobile broadband connection can be shared by up to devices such as laptops or smartphones. The devices connect by wi-fi up to a range of about 10 metres.

It can be useful in different situations. From a business perspective, up to 5 co-workers can be online with one 3G connection. Friends can share a connection in the same way which could be useful when travelling.

The technology isn’t new but these type of devices makes it easy with auto-install and auto-connect so the personal hotspot is available at the push of a button.

Virgin Mobile also offer a MiFi modem available from Dick Smith and Coles.

Telstra has announced new wireless broadband plans for small to medium businesses in a similar vein to the changes in consumer wireless broadband plans announced last week.

From January 21st small businesses will have access to double the data allowance on some plans and access to casual mobile broadband deals with no contract. Telstra will also introduce a higher usage plan of 120GB.

One of the welcome changes to the consumer plans was that no excess charges would be levied. However, businesses will still incur charges of 5c per megabyte for excess usage on plans over 9GB per month. This is reduced quite a bit from the existing rate of 25c per megabyte excess usage.

Telstra also announced that they will partner with Acer to offer bundled laptop and mobile broadband deals from February.

Tablets are the next new thing to connect to the Internet apparently with buzz generated by the rumours that Apple will announce a tablet product at this end of this month, possibly on the 26 or 27 January and scheduled to be on the market in March.

Not one of the details has been officially confirmed. Best guess is that the Apple tablet will have a 10-11” touchscreen, keyboard, wireless connectivity and will retail for under $1000.

The Apple tablet is the most talked about but the coolest gadget announcement at CES was the Lenovo Ideapad U1 Hybrid.

The Lenovo Ideapad U1 Hybrid is two computers in one (or 3 maybe?). It works as a laptop but the screen is detachable and morphs into a tablet. When the screen is detached the keyboard can then be attached to another display. It really is two separate computers because each component when working separately runs with different processors and operating systems.

When working as a laptop with both halves together it runs on Windows 7 Home Premium on an Intel Core 2 Duo SU processor. When you separate them, the tablet runs on a customized version of Linux and a Qualcomm ARM Snapdragon processor. The tablet also has embedded 3G and 16GB of solid state memory.
It looks fantastic and is a very clever idea. How successful it will be remains to be seem. The launch date is set for June and the price is around a thousand US dollars.

The Australian figures for Internet consumption 08/09 are out and more of us have access to broadband Internet at home, we are taking up wireless broadband in droves, downloading a lot more stuff to mobile handsets and shopping and banking online. None of this will come as any surprise but the figures are impressive.

3G mobile and wireless broadband services grew by a massive 162%. 25% of all Internet subscribers were mobile broadband users up greatly from the year before. Fixed line broadband declined by 3% during the same period. This presumably indicates that many first time Internet users are opting for mobile broadband out of choice or necessity.

80% of all Australians have access to the Internet at home and 90% of these have broadband.
67% of us do some form of shopping and/or banking online. Online advertising increased by 27% for the period.

Downloads were up by a huge 80%.

All of these figures are in line with the report on the growth of mobile Internet globally that we covered a few days ago. Internet usage is changing. People want the flexibility of being online wherever they are thus driving the massive increases in wireless and 3G mobile broadband. Fators driving this are age and the growth of social networking and online purchasing. The consumption of mobile Internet is being facilitated by better coverage and by the sophistication of smartphone handsets such as the Apple iPhone.

The report by the ACMA can be found on their website.

The Mobile Internet Report from Morgan Stanley is an excellent and thought provoking read on the huge future expected for mobile Internet and the companies and technologies that will gain and lose.

Mobile Internet is a new cycle in the history of computing. In the 1960s we had mainframe computing, the 70s mini computing, the 80s personal computing, the 90s desktop Internet computing and the next cycle is mobile Internet computing.

Each cycle creates huge wealth for companies who develop and take advantage of emerging technologies. This cycle will be no different and because each cycle reaches more people by a factor of 10, the gains (and losses) that will be experienced are massive.

Mobile Internet isn’t limited to phones and notebooks/laptops. It will include anything that is Internet enabled such as cars, MP3s, e-readers, billboards, appliances etc.

The growth will be huge, more than we probably believe now. 5 products or services are underpinning this growth – the take up of 3G mobile broadband, social networking, video, VoIP and innovations in mobile devices such as smartphones and netbooks. Predictions are that the mobile Internet market will be at least twice the size of the desktop market. Smartphones will outship the notebook market by the end of 2010 and will outship the PC (desktop) market by the end of 2012. Mobile traffic is likely to grow 66 times by 2013. The income from mobile Internet grew by 20% last year at the same time as the global economy declined by 5%.

More significant than the growth predictions is the fact that mobile Internet is game changing and changing rapidly. The adoption of social networking has created a culture where people are always on and always there. Social networking combines the two most important sources of information for people, the Internet and personal. These two sources are more important than TV, radio and newspapers and represent a big opportunity for advertisers and vendors. Mobile Internet offers opportunities for location based services, word of mouth advertising and a way of getting in between user conversations on mobile devices.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are changing the way in which a generation of younger people communicate. Currently, around 17% of Facebook users access the service via a mobile device. This figure is expected to rise to greater than 90% within 5 years. Facebook and other social networking services will be very powerful. Search is likely to play a bigger part within these services as people access repositories of content that are a mix of user generated and professional.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia has said that it will sell the Nexus One handset in Australia sometime this year. The statement from VHA said that “details relating to Vodafone’s Australian launch of Google Nexus One will be announced in due course.”

Vodafone are launching the Nexus One phone in the UK in a few weeks time. Before the launch in Australia VHA’s chief executive has said that Vodafone will need to optimise its network to ensure that the services available on the device worked properly.