Asia to drive mobile broadband Internet access

Broadband-service providers will see their revenue from mobile services jump to 137 billion dollars worldwide by 2014, up 450 percent from 2008, a report said Thursday.

But the number of mobile broadband users will likely outpace revenue growth as competition drives prices lower and because most of the new clients will come from less wealthy users in emerging markets, industry consulting firm Ovum said.

The number of mobile broadband users -- both through handsets and laptop computers -- should top two billion in 2014, up over 1,000 percent from 181 million in 2008, with the Asia Pacific emerging as a key driver, it said.

"The most aggressive growth comes from emerging markets, where the unavailability of fixed broadband offers a major opportunity for mobile broadband players," the consultancy said in its latest research.

It said 40 percent of total mobile laptop users will come from the Asia Pacific region by 2014, powered by increasing usage in China and India, the world's two most populous nations.

However, handsets are likely to continue to dominate the market for mobile Internet access compared with laptops, Ovum said.

In China alone, there will be 325 million handset users against 52.5 million laptop users by 2013, it said.

(c) 2009 AFP