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Git Sellin, marketing manager for Ericsson's Full Service Broadband proposition, says: "Broadband is undergoing the same journey as voice services. Once upon a time you were satisfied with a phone in your home; then telephony went 'mobile' with telephone booths; and now we have our mobile terminals or mobile phones with us all the time, even when we travel around the world.

"This level of  broadband connectivity is a natural step and people are now starting to take it for granted and are not prepared to accept anything less. Once they've started to use broadband, they'll never go back. To achieve this, we need to take a holistic view of broadband combining fixed and mobile broadband."

The convenience of broadband will be a key contributor to its strong growth. Solutions such as Ericsson's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) support the development and deployment of end-to-end services that enable different users to access various services and personalize their communications over different access methods. From an end-user perspective, usage of different devices is expected to drive mass-market adoption.

"Without convenience, broadband will not become mass market. It has to be easy to use, secure and reliable in order for end users to adopt it," Sellin says. "In turn, convenience brings added benefits to operators such as reducing the need for helpdesk services and boosted end-user satisfaction."

John Gonner, executive managing director at Australian operator Telstra, says: "With the speed of the network, now it (mobile broadband) is much faster and easier to use and customers enjoy using it.

 "Our customers are all about one-click, one-screen, one-touch, one-step solutions that are easy to use - and that's why we are seeing penetration rates for our mobile TV that are twice as high as anybody in the world: because when you get to our mobile TV you literally click once, click your channel and you're on your station."

Broadband can provide more bang for your buck, another factor set to support its widespread uptake. For example, bundled services can provide end users with better value for money, while simultaneously helping operators reduce customer churn and offset declining telephony revenues. However, the challenge is introducing new services and additional network capacity with minimal additional cost of ownership.

Sellin says: "Broadband architecture needs to support services that are both affordable for users and profitable for operators. By employing open-standard architecture for Full Service Broadband, operators can make their investments future-proof and gradually add services to expand sustainably. It also simplifies interoperability and provides them with the flexibility to respond to future changes."

Gonner adds: "Efficiency and cost structure are critical, and to be competitive we have to continue to look at our cost structure and turn that back into cost savings for our consumers."