Mobile Broadband Business Designs: Operators Under Cost Pressure Are at Crossroads

Mobile broadband is one of the star products of the last two years, with the arrival of 3G+ to most markets. The number of consumers connecting their laptops or netbooks to the Internet through a data card or a dongle is rapidly increasing across the globe.

Mobile broadband differs from mobile Internet (i.e., accessing the Internet directly through a phone/smartphone) and is much closer to the experience of fixed broadband than mobile Internet, which has important consequences for the mobile industry.

This paper analyzes the increasingly fast adoption of mobile broadband services in Western European markets. We describe the more common competitive landscapes and the business designs that have emerged to balance costs and revenues. Finally, given that the current business case for mobile broadband is still incremental from the revenue side, we outline specific initiatives to evolve current business designs to ensure scalability.