Mobile Broadband Gets Real FEBRUARY 7, 2007
After years of talk, trials and delays, mobile broadband is becoming a reality, thanks largely to 3G.
It has been a long time coming, but mobile wireless broadband is finally moving beyond early adoption, according to the latest report on broadband lines from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC reported that satellite, fixed and wireless broadband lines approached 12 million in June 2006, up from just under a million in June 2005.
The FCC's site provides further detail, and reveals that the lion's share of these lines (11,015,968 in June 2006) were mobile wireless (as opposed to fixed wireless). That number is up from 379,536 in June 2005, meaning that over 10 million broadband-enabled wireless phones were activated in one year. Although this includes both business and residential lines, carrier rollouts of multimedia offerings are likely responsible for this boom.
With mobile entertainment coming on strong, this trend is likely to continue. Apple plans to sell eight million iPhones in its first year via Cingular. Although the phone's first iteration will not be true 3G, it will be multimedia-intensive and require a data plan to work. Apple has announced that a 3G version is in the works as well.
This is all great news for mobile marketers. Although eMarketer believes that general mobile ads will account for most of the mobile ad spending growth through 2011, the mobile marketing opportunity depends on faster networks (notably 3G) and more advanced handsets.
"The mobile marketing opportunity is a function of the specific mobile advertising or sponsorship opportunity for multimedia content and applications, such as full-track music, video and mobile TV, gaming, gambling and, of course, adult mobile content," notes eMarketer senior analyst John du Pre Gauntt, author of the Mobile Marketing and Advertising report. The long-awaited widespread rise of mobile broadband sets the stage for such marketing.
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