DUE TO market-specific conditions in South Africa – particularly high prices, the difficulty of geographical coverage and copper theft, plus the decade of delays for telecoms liberalisation – it’s not surprising cellphones and wireless Internet connections outnumber fixed lines.<\/p>\n
It now appears Europe is following the same route, despite having highly developed and cheap fixed line infrastructure and services. A new report by market-research firm Analy-sys Mason shows by 2013 almost 50% of European broadband subscriptions will use mobile networks. In addition, almost 25% of broadband-equipped sites will use mobile only.<\/p>\n
“The rate at which broadband via mobile USB modems has grown has surprised many in the fixed-broadband business – and, indeed, the mobile business – and early indications are that consumers in Europe are using mobile broadband as a substitute for fixed,” says the report’s main author, Rupert Wood.<\/p>\n
For example, when the world’s number one telecoms firm – Ericsson – launched a faster 3G modem (offering speeds of 7,2Mbps) in the Nordic countries last year, it became the fastest selling technology ever released there. By contrast, in Europe and SA ADSL-subscriber net additions are drying up.<\/p>\n
Roads in cities throughout SA are being dug up by Neotel, Vodacom and MTN to lay optic fibre, which lessens those companies’ dependence on Telkom for back-haul infrastructure for their wireless and mobile services and make it possible to offer higher speeds to customers (a 7,2Mbps HSDPA connection – outstripping the fastest ADSL – could become available in SA next year).<\/p>\n