Mobile broadband—Operator opportunities

Ericsson Review, no. 01, 2005

Written by: Andrei Dulski and Mikael Persson

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Ericsson intends to do with broadband what it did with telephony 20 years ago; that is, make it mobile and accessible to everyone, everywhere.

The authors describe the business opportunity, competition, drivers of broadband and mobility, strategies and business models. They also touch briefly on enabling technologies that build a strong technical case for mobile broadband.

Background
The internet revolution has created a huge demand for broadband access throughout the world, and as a result broadband is currently one of the fastest-growing telecommunications services. Ericsson estimates that the internet has reached one billion users and it foresees continued growing demand for broadband access as more and more users switch from dialup access and, apart from higher bit rates, begin asking for mobility and universal availability. Operators of third-generation mobile systems (3G) can introduce a range of competitive broadband internet-access services to address this fast-growing segment by drawing on existing assets and Ericsson’s end-to-end mobile broadband offering. These new PC or laptop-oriented mobile broadband services will coexist with the many handset-oriented mobile data services that have given end-users a compelling mobile internet experience via WAP and MMS.

Today, 3G systems are evolving to the point where they can combine mobility and ubiquitous availability with the bit rates computer users have come to expect. This will give rise to a new service that truly deserves to be called mobile broadband.