3G boom could bring network to its knees

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 23 Jun 2008 at 17:10

The boom in popularity of mobile broadband may yet prove a nightmare for operators as a study predicts the network faltering under demand.

Berg Insight suggests that with Long Term Evolution and High Speed Packet Access technology set to become standard features of laptops in the next few years, the European mobile broadband market will grow from 8.4 million users in 2007 to 49 million in 2013.

While this might sound like good news for the legion of mobile operators currently pushing their offerings, Berg claims the current infrastructure is unable to cope with such demand and will require significant investment if it's to be made ready.

The company also warns that current tactics of advertising unobtainable headline speeds, while capping data packages can't last, as customers increasingly look to use next generation services through their mobile connection.

"In a few years, internet users will expect to be able to view full-HD streaming IPTV via their internet connection," says Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight. "Then it will not do to offer 14.4Mb/sec which is actually 1Mb/sec, or unlimited data traffic which is in reality limited to a few gigabytes per month."

Check out the current issue of PC Pro in which we compare the mobile broadband offerings from every UK provider.