SMBs leading the charge to mobile broadband

In something of a surprise, small-medium businesses (SMBs), not deep-pocketed enterprises, are driving mobile broadband adoption.

An ABI Research study, "United States Mobile Business Customer Profiles," indicated that the bigger corporate enterprises are less flexible when it comes to adopting new technology. Smaller businesses, the report concludes, can implement new technology like 3G broadband data more quickly because they can get the equipment off-the-shelves from commercial outlets.

The mobile broadband market is, of course, still in its infancy with access methods ranging from USB modems in laptops to embedded devices to ultra-mobile personal computers (UMPCs) and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and, of course, smartphones. There is also some confusion as to what network to use since 3G is not ubiquitous--and speeds decrease painfully when a user leaves a 3G cell--and, with the new Clearwire now a reality WiMAX is becoming a viable option. Finally, some users are waiting for LTE to arrive several years from now.

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