Mobile Broadband market in Central Europe to skyrocket over the next 5 years

Economic recession and restrictive market regulators' policies, especially in terms of mobile termination rate (MTR) cuts, have been the most negative factors affecting the mobile telecommunications market in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region. Mobile telecom operators facing revenue decline from traditional mobile services started to focus more on mobile broadband development. Although CEE markets differ considerably in terms of mobile broadband penetration, technologies, and network coverage, the common point would be significant market growth expected within the next five years.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan notes that the market earned revenues of euro 1.1 billion in 2009 and forecasts this to reach euro 5.2 billion in 2014. The service penetration is expected to grow from 2 per cent to 10 per cent within the forecast period.

"Due to relatively low overall broadband penetration, mobile broadband will be a complementary rather than supplementary service to fixed broadband in CEE countries," says Frost & Sullivan ICT research analyst Edyta Kosowska. "Therefore, mobile broadband operators should initially focus on improving the service quality through sufficient network upgrades as customers expect the same download speed and data download limits as from fixed broadband internet. Only when achieved that, the operators should follow Western European players' strategies and concentrate on developing wider range of value-added services." Article