Demand for data services has never been so high

Despite the worldwide credit crunch and consumer belt tightening, the demand for mobile data services has never been so high.

The international market research institute EITO (European Information Technology Observatory) based in Berlin, said it anticipates consumers and companies across the EU to spend some €32.6bn this year, rising to €36bn in 2010 on mobile data services.

The UK is expected to achieve the largest market volume for mobile data in 2009 with some €5.6bn spent on data services. Germany is in second place with €5.2bn, followed by Italy with just under this number and France with €4bn. As the fifth largest market, Spain will spend €3.2bn on data services.

“More and more people are using the facilities offered by mobile internet, whether via their cell phones or with a notebook computer,” said EITO chairman Bruno Lamborghini. “The web is no longer regarded as a purely stationary PC application. Many users appreciate its diverse information and versatility when on the move.”

Lamborghini noted that smartphones have helped mobile internet use make its breakthrough, with extensive internet, email and multimedia functions as standard features, even in mid-range models.

Indeed, kit vendor Nokia Siemens Networks said Thursday that it expects mobile data traffic growth to double every year. At current rates, NSN expects that by 2011 mobile data will overtake voice traffic, growing exponentially until 2013.

The company said that it has just notched up its 500 millionth mobile data user on the networks it has deployed. Close to 300 customers use NSN as the supplier of packet core infrastructure, including operators such as America Movil, AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, Oi, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and Vodafone.

Statistics released by Informa Telecoms & Media on Wednesday revealed that mobile broadband subscribers worldwide topped the 225 million mark at the end of March 2009, representing 93 per cent year on year growth.