High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Broadband

A report from Canalys on the global smartphone market indicates that sales are up and that Apple have catapulted into second place after the release on the iphone. Here’s a summary of the report findings:

• worldwide smartphone shipments rose by 28% in the third quarter 2008. The figures reached a new high of 39.9 million
• Nokia is still the market leader and has held that position for several years. This quarter Apple and RIm made inroads into narrowing the gap.
• Smartphones now represent 13% of the overall mobile phone market. This is up from 11% last quarter.
• Apple overtook RIM to take second place after the release of the iphone 3G
• The top 5 smartphone vendors this quarter were Nokia, Apple, RIM, Motorola and HTC
• In an interview with 13,000 European mobile phone users, touch screens emerged as the most popular device design

I’ve been using skype a couple of times a day in recent weeks speaking to family members in the UK who are shortly arriving for a visit to Australia. I make the calls on the PC using a headset and microphone but I’ve been reading with interest about the Skypephone from 3 Mobile.

It integrates standard mobile phone calls with skype calls or chat to other skype users. There is a  monthly allocation of 4000 skype-to-skype minutes plus 10,000 chat messages. That’s pretty good, it’s over 2 hours a day of free calls. The skypephone is free on the $29 Cap plan with a $29 minimum monthly spend over 12 months. More details are available on the 3 mobile website.

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Hot on the heels of reports in the UK detailing the huge increases in mobile broadband, the Australian Bureau of Statistics have released a report on wireless broadband in Australia in which they have included 3G mobile broadband.

In the last six months mobile and wireless broadband subscriptions have doubled.

An Ovum analyst commented on the surge in mobile broadband stating that the price war is most likely the reason. Costs for mobile broadband have fallen significantly.

However he also made the prediction that prices have likely bottomed out for now and made reference to the congestion problems experienced by networks.

ZDNet have the full story.

Ofcom, an independent organisation which regulates and reports on the UK telecommunications industry has released findings on telecommunications usage from 2002 to 2007. It shows that the use of the Internet and particularly mobile broadband has increased dramatically in that period. The time spent on PCs and laptops increased four-fold and there was a huge increase in the sale of dongles for accessing mobile broadband.

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The ACCC yesterday issued a warning to consumers that smartphones like the iPhone 3G will facilitate and encourage the downloading of much higher volumes of data than was the case with mobile phones. This can mean significant costs if their data allocations are exceeded.

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59% of the UK population who have broadband at home also have a wireless network in their house according to a recent survey by Linksys.

People have an increasing number of gadgets in the home. There is a desire to do away with unnecessary cabling and there’s also a desire for more mobility generally rather than being tethered to a fixed location with a cable.

An average household might have a music player, video recorder, games console and printer.

The survey stated that home wireless networks are mostly used to:

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Neilsen have published research into “the worldwide state of the mobile web”. Unfortunately their world didn’t include Australia. 16 countries were included but Australia wasn’t among them. New Zealand was however. Still, the overall findings and comments are relevant even if the research is US centric. Here’s a summary of the findings:

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The media loves stories like the one reported in the Daily Mail, UK a few days ago about a holidaymaker who downloaded an episode of his favourite TV programme and got back from holiday to a bill of £31,500. His mobile broadband contract usually costs him about £150 a month but the combination of roaming charges and high data usage sent the charges spiralling out of control.

After some negotiation the bill was reduced to a much more reasonable $229 but the story has sparked debate about high roaming charges and the responsibilities of the mobile broadband providers to make customers aware of the implications of roaming.

3 UK has responded to the bad publicity by banning its customers from using their mobile broadband service while overseas unless they have specifically elected to opt in. Even if they opt in there will be a credit limit on those accounts.

In Australia, the communication minister, Senator Stephen Conroy has called for an enquiry into international mobile roaming charges. In his statement about the enquiry he particularly cited the problems for businesses whose employees can rack up huge bills when charged at mobile roaming rates.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics have releases the figures for Internet usage by businesses for 2005 – 2006. Here are some of the highlights.

Internet Usage

• 81% of businesses use the Internet
• 30% of businesses have a web presence, either their own website or a presence on a 3rd party website
• 82.5% of businesses who use the Internet have broadband

Type of Internet Connection

1. DSL is the most popular – used by 80% of businesses
2. Cable is the next popular at 15%

Reasons given for not using broadband

Businesses who have an Internet connection but not broadband gave these as the main reasons:

• Unavailability in business location – 38%
• Ongoing costs too high – 25%
• Lack of perceived benefit – 24%
• Set up connection costs too high – 22%
• Never considered it – 19%