Some big-name European countries are painfully behind the curve in terms of mobile broadband penetration, research by Berg Insight shows.
The penetration rate of high-speed mobile internet services in Belgium, Switzerland and Greece stood at 3% or less by end-2010, at least 7% lower than the region’s leading markets. Berg states Austria is the top country, with penetration of 20%, while Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Ireland and Portugal all tip the scale at 10% or more.
Analyst Lars Kurkinen says Austria’s mobile broadband subscriptions are equivalent to “46% of all broadband connections in the country,” and the country also ranks highly in terms of offering the lowest prices, alongside Baltic countries and Poland. Prices for a 3GB bundle in those territories are typically between €8 and €11 per month, and carriers usually deliver download rates of 3.6Mbps or higher.
At the opposite end of the price scale are Switzerland and Spain, where the average price is around €40 per month.
The research firm estimates global shipments of mobile broadband devices hit 92.7 million in 2010 – 27.4 million of which sold in Europe -, with almost ten million embedded modules shipped during the year.