Mobile broadband on the rise

The European mobile broadband market will hit five million connections by the end of 2007 as laptop data cards grow in popularity, according to Swedish research house Berg Insight.

The firm forecasts that the value of the market will grow at 22.9 per cent over the next five years, to hit Eur3bn In 2011, the firm said, connections will have grown six-fold to 30 million.

“Mobile operators like 3, A1 Mobilkom and Telenor are getting this right,” said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight. “Ordinary people have already replaced their old bulky desktop PC with a new, slim, wide-screen notebook. Now, thanks to ‘Turbo 3G’, they can also connect to the internet anywhere for just 20 euros per month.”