The more people use broadband, the more they want it everywhere – not just at hotspots or at home, a recent Ericsson ConsumerLab study shows.

Mobile broadband can satisfy this desire quickly and easily. But to unlock mobile broadband’s huge potential, operators must ensure good coverage, capacity and speed, as well as increasing awareness through targeted advertising to different market segments.

Ericsson ConsumerLab performed the quantitative web-based study in June and July 2008 with more than 3600 respondents aged 15-69 in four highly developed broadband markets: Australia, Austria, Singapore and Sweden. The study found a ready and willing market for mobile broadband, with subscribers tending to use the same services on the move as at they do home – just less often. The most commonly used services are e-mail, chat, internet and communities.

Henrik Högberg, Vice President for Network Sales & Marketing at Ericsson, says people want true mobility and the ability to use their broadband everywhere. This is even more so for potential users than for current ones, which is why coverage and speed are so important though not only in hotspots or at home. It has to be broadband everywhere.

The real surprise was that only 50 percent of respondents knew what mobile broadband was – a current limitation but an indicator of huge growth potential.

Högberg says turning potential growth into real growth depends on two things: marketing to the mass market, and efficient packaging and pricing.

“Mobile broadband can compete with DSL if the two services are packaged or priced in a similar way,” he says. “However, in many markets, mobile broadband still costs too much, or the pricing is too difficult to understand.”

Advertising needs to target a wider range of market segments because, as the survey showed, mobile broadband is not simply for early adopters. Advertising should highlight how easy mobile broadband is to use.

“Operators need to think ahead,” Högberg says. “They might think their work is done, but it has only started.”

Yet, while advertising needs to show that mobile broadband is for everyone from grandmothers to young adults, understanding the needs of digital natives will be key. And digital natives demand reliable services at fast speeds and reasonable cost. “Digital natives take it for granted that broadband just works,” Högberg says. “And if it doesn’t work, they have no patience with it.”

Flexibility is also important for increased take-up of mobile broadband. Consumers require different devices for different purposes; they may need modules for one thing and a dongle for another. People want access not only on their computers at home, but on their mobile phones, in their cars and everywhere they go.

The study also found that fixed and mobile broadband complement each other, especially for combined users. They use all their services over mobile broadband, but still use their fixed broadband connection when consuming large amounts of data. Meanwhile, the primary barriers to outdoor mobile-broadband use are still practical issues, such as poor battery capacity, lack of electricity and not having a laptop.