The German population appears to have enthusiastically taken to mobile broadband, with the latest estimates indicating that mobile data revenues would climb to €7 billion in 2011, almost a 12 per cent increase over 2010.
This latest forecast, compiled by the trade association Bitkom and the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO), is based on the 70 million GB (or 70 terabytes) that were consumed by mobile users in Germany last year. This compares to the 34 terabytes recorded in 2009, and 11.5 terabytes in 2008.
According to Bitkom and EITO, this continuing growth of mobile data usage is being driven laptops and netbooks. However, traffic is expected to shift to tablets like Apple's iPad and Samsung's GalaxyTab.
The study claimed that around 9.5 million of these non-handset devices were sold in Germany last year, with tablets further boosting traffic due to their multimedia capabilities
However, to support this growth in mobile data traffic, the two organisations said that German mobile operators must look to invest between €8 billion and €10 billion over the next few years. With revenues from voice calls forecast to continue to decline--down 2.2 per cent last year, and expected to drop a further 3.5 per cent in 2011--the need to invest in mobile data networks will become a growing necessity.
For more:
- see this WARC article
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