Bertil Thorngren, professor at the Center for Information and Communication Research at the Stockholm School of Economics, says the two regions are quite similar with each having more than 100 percent mobile penetration. Mobile broadband, however, is a different story.
Thorngren, who has been following telecom developments for more than 35 years, says that the Baltic countries look as though they will be quicker to adopt this growing technology. Since the area does not face the challenge of overcoming old habits (such as a previous commitment to a fixed-line service) and with less variety to choose from, mobile phones serve several functions at once. In the Baltic region, there is also less of a legacy commitment to previous services - fewer existing customers subscribe to ADSL or other fixed broadband services. As a result, they seem more eager to embrace mobile broadband.
Thorngren says differences between the Baltic and the Nordic markets are only natural.
"In Sweden, we are spoiled for choice with alternatives such as fixed-line phones and computers," he says. "In the Baltic region, there is more of a fast-moving 'greenfield' situation from both an operator and end-user perspective."
There are signs that mobile broadband is starting to pick up speed: data traffic within the market increased by 20 percent during 2006, albeit from a low level. More 3G than 2G telephones are being sold, and operators are broadening their marketing - not just concentrating on price, but on the benefits of mobile broadband as well. In Scandinavia, operators are pushing mobile broadband computer cards.
Thorngren says: "The average European uses about 150 minutes of mobile telephony per month. This amounts to a modest 15MB. In contrast, the average usage of fixed broadband is currently about 1.5GB per month. This will probably increase to 9GB within the next few years. Hence, the potential traffic volumes for mobile broadband could well be thousands of times larger in comparison to the modest mobile traffic volume of today. The sky is the limit."
