Global Mobile Broadband - Infrastructure and Spectrum Crunch

High demand for mobile broadbandThe global mobile broadband industry has become an incredible spectacle to observe, from the many competitors vying for position; the amazing apps streaming into the market; the introduction of new devices and the looming spectrum and infrastructure crunch. The explosion in mobile communications in the developing world has created social and economic changes that have exceeded all expectations and predictions – even those made as recently as five years ago. There are still countries lagging behind, but now is the time to move on to the next stage – and that means broadband. Already the developed world is showing an enormous appetite for mobile broadband, so the demand is most certainly there.

The introduction of new hardware that included iPhones, Android Operating System and capped data charges led to an industry breakthrough that is finally beginning to allow revenues to be generated from this growing sector. It was really the arrival of the iPhone that forced the industry to change. Rather than controlling the apps and portals market, the industry has become a broadband infrastructure facilitator. This has created a new growth area in the industry which is based more on infrastructure than on apps or services. Tablet uptake is increasing resulting in further mobile broadband usage.

The messaging industry is undergoing changes and while SMS still generates the largest market share of messaging revenues; it is expected that revenues Multimedia Messaging (MMS) and Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) will continue to grow over the next few years. Mobile social messaging is also beginning to impact upon the messaging market as consumers turn to this free way to send messages via their social networks.

Mobile apps and mobile services such as mobile gaming; social networking; mobile TV/video and mobile commerce all have a bright future ahead and further developments based on location-based services will continue to emerge. Initially people were lured by the Check-in feature offered by location based services over social networks and high profile start-ups liked Foursquare captured consumer attention based on this. However these types of services are beginning to evolve as consumers appear to be seeking more useful location-based information on places or venues they visit.

Other sectors incorporating location technology include mobile gaming; vehicle tracking; people and animal tracking and advertising. The future of mobile Location Based Services will continue to evolve as handsets with smarter capabilities, new apps and user interfaces permeate the market. This technology will also be included in the broader concept of The Internet of Things.

While the mobile broadband sector is currently going from strength to strength - it is also becoming increasingly clear that structural changes are going to be required in the near future. BuddeComm regularly bring this issue forward - similar to the discussion in relation to the structural separation of the fixed networks, which we began just over a decade ago. What we are beginning to see in the mobile industry is an infrastructure and a spectrum crunch. The winners will be the first mobile operators who have the vision and understand that the mobile network has fundamentally changed to become basically a fibre network with mobile feed-ins – with smartphones, tablets and other smart devices as the platforms on which to build new business models. Competing on mobile/fibre infrastructure through duplication will not be the smartest way forward.

BuddeComm’s new report, Global Mobile Broadband – Infrastructure and Spectrum Crunch, provides important insights into the worldwide mobile broadband industry and includes trends, analyses, statistics and case studies. The report provides a valuable overview of the global mobile broadband industry and covers key sectors including mobile apps; mobile social networking; mobile gaming; mobile messaging; mobile TV/video and mobile commerce. It provides insights into technology developments including location based technology and 3G/4G emergence. BuddeComm also explores the key issues surrounding the looming infrastructure and spectrum crunch. Information at a regional level is provided for North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific, written by BuddeComm’s Senior Analysts.

Examples of key insights:

In 2012, mobile operators seeking to increase their revenues and market share amongst saturated markets continue to on the opportunities offered by mobile broadband. We are just at the tip of the iceberg and it was not that long ago that BuddeComm was still lamenting the fact that mobile broadband revenues (excluding SMS) generated no more than 3-5% of mobile industry revenues. The combination of Location-Based Services with GPS technology, mobile commerce applications and social networking has revived the LBS sector and is leading to new wireless innovations. There has been much hype regarding this technology since around the year 2000 and it is only recently that we have seen applications becoming available to mass audiences. A popular mobile dating app in the emerging markets is called Eskimi and in 2012 it joined with Gecko Landmarks in order to incorporate location based offerings. Eskimi has over 5 million users in emerging markets with over 2 million in Nigeria alone. A number of encouraging industry developments will lead to an increase in services like mobile TV and mobile video. These include the fact that the high penetration of mobile around the world signifies a mass market potential; 3G and 4G technology uptake is set to continue; there is a growing use of mobile web by consumers – leading to more mobile web video viewing; and there is improved advertising subsidies to subscription base streaming mobile TV services.Regionally, in the Middle East LTE has been launched in rapid succession by Gulf Region operators. Bandwidth demand is also driving investment in backhaul and Internet connectivity.African companies which are holding LTE spectrum are becoming hot takeover targets.Asia’s mobile markets continue to offer huge potential for mobile data services. With 3G networks being launched and expanded, the demand for service in the region’s developing markets has picked up pace. In South Asia, in particular, more people own a mobile phone than a PC, giving the delivery of mobile data services huge opportunities there.In Australia, 4G networks are being rolled out by the operators to increase the usability of the congested 3G networks.Five 4G/LTE networks have been deployed in four Latin American countries (Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay).

Global Broadband Industry

1. Global Mobile Broadband Insights
1.1 Key Mobile Broadband and Mobile Apps Trends
1.1.1 Market summary
1.1.2 Mobile broadband insights
1.1.3 Mobile apps insights
1.1.4 Interesting wireless broadband start-up examples
1.1.5 Brief case studies
1.1.6 Early adopters: Japan and South Korea
1.1.7 Japan
1.1.8 South Korea
2. Global Mobile Broadband Spectrum and Infrastructure Crunch
2.1 Fundamental Changes to the Mobile Industry Required
2.1.1 The spectrum crunch
2.1.2 Mobile infrastructure becomes a fibre feed-in
2.1.3 Industry consolidation is a must
2.1.4 Market leadership no longer with the operators
2.1.5 Mobile broadband: killer app for FttH
2.1.6 Case study: Europe
2.2 Spectrum is the Key to Broadband Utility
2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 City/slum developments in emerging economies
2.2.3 Mobile broadband is national infrastructure (not just telecoms)
2.2.4 Spectrum harmonisation and infrastructure-sharing
2.2.5 Mobile broadband will stimulate investments in fibre networks
2.2.6 Competition issue
2.2.7 A comprehensive infrastructure plan is essential
3. Global Mobile Broadband Services
3.1 Key Mobile Social Networking and Gaming Trends
3.1.1 Social networks market summary
3.1.2 Social networks market insights
3.1.3 Brief case studies
3.1.4 Online and mobile gaming market
3.2 Key Mobile Location Based Service Trends
3.2.1 Introduction
3.2.2 Mobile Location Based Services (MLBS)
3.2.3 GPS
3.2.4 The Internet of Things – Behavioural Attitudinal Geolocation
3.3 Key Mobile Messaging Trends
3.3.1 Introduction
3.3.2 Short Messaging Service (SMS)
3.3.3 Interesting examples of SMS applications
3.3.4 Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM)
3.3.5 Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
3.3.6 Unified Communications (UC)
3.3.7 Email/mobile email
3.3.8 Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
3.3.9 Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD)
3.4 Key Mobile TV/Video Trends
3.4.1 Mobile TV/video comms
4. Global Mobile Commerce
4.1 Key M-Commerce Trends
4.1.1 Global M-Commerce market
4.1.2 Market insights
5. Global Mobile Broadband Technologies
5.1 Key Mobile Broadband Technologies
5.1.1 Technology insights
6. Global Mobile Handset Market
6.1 Global Mobile Handset Market Trends
6.1.1 Historical handset market growth
6.1.2 Global mobile handset statistics and forecasts
6.1.3 Smartphones leaders
6.1.4 Touchscreen tablets
6.1.5 Other trends and developments
6.1.6 Safety and security issues
7. Regional Overviews
7.1 North America
7.1.1 Trends and statistics
7.1.2 Market overview
7.1.3 Mobile spectrum and infrastructure
7.1.4 Mobile broadband technologies
7.1.5 Mobile TV
7.1.6 Wireless data services
7.2 Latin America
7.2.1 Overview
7.2.2 Case study: Brazil
7.2.3 Third generation (3G) mobile networks (UMTS)
7.2.4 Fourth generation (4G) mobile
7.2.5 Mobile handsets/smartphones
7.2.6 Mobile broadband
7.3 Europe
7.3.1 European mobile broadband market overview
7.3.2 Mobile services
7.3.3 Mobile commerce
7.3.4 Mobile broadband technologies
7.3.5 Mobile handset market
7.4 Africa
7.4.1 Overview
7.5 Middle East
7.5.1 Overview
7.5.2 HSDPA/HSPA
7.5.3 Long Term Evolution (LTE)
7.5.4 WiMAX
7.6 Asia
7.6.1 Background
7.6.2 Development of mobile data services
7.6.3 South Korea
7.6.4 Singapore
7.7 Pacific Region
7.7.1 Australia
7.7.2 New Zealand
8. Glossary of Abbreviations
Table 1 – Worldwide mobile services revenue – 2008; 2010; 2012
Table 2 – Global - key app store competitors
Table 3 – Prepaid mobile subscribers – December 2010
Table 4 – Japan - mobile Internet subscribers, services and technology by provider – August 2011
Table 5 – Japan - mobile Internet subscribers by providers – 2004 - 2010
Table 6 – Japan - mobile Internet subscribers – 2000 – 2011
Table 7 – Wireless internet subscribers by service provider – June 2008
Table 8 – Wireless internet subscribers by service provider – December 2010
Table 9 – SK Telecom wireless internet ARPU by service type – 2005 - 2009
Table 10 – South Korea - purpose of using mobile phone wireless internet – 2009 - 2010
Table 11 – South Korea - wireless internet device usage - 2010
Table 12 – Time spent on online in social networks by top 10 countries – 2010; 2011
Table 13 – Worldwide market share of mobile social network users – 2008; 2012; 2013
Table 14 – Worldwide social network advertising spending – 2008 – 2016
Table 15 – USA social network advertising spending – 2008 - 2009
Table 16 – Visitors to top web properties worldwide – 2008; June 2009; May 2011
Table 17 – Top 10 countries using Facebook – 2012
Table 18 – Total value of bets placed via mobile gambling worldwide – 2006; 2010; 2015
Table 19 – Worldwide in-game advertising spending – 2010; 2013
Table 20 – Location based provider examples
Table 21 – Worldwide MLBS subscribers – 2008 – 2014
Table 22 – Worldwide MLBS revenue – 2007; 2009; 2011; 2013; 2015
Table 23 – Historical - regional MLBS revenue – 2009
Table 24 – Worldwide messaging revenue – 2010 - 2015
Table 25 – Worldwide messaging industry revenue by key segment – 2012
Table 26 – Worldwide text messages sent – 2010; 2012
Table 27 - MMS global revenue – 2009 - 2012
Table 28 – Worldwide number of email users – 2009; 2011
Table 29 – Number of emails sent each day worldwide – 2007; 2009; 2011; 2013
Table 30 – Worldwide connected devices
Table 31 – Worldwide mobile TV subscribers
Table 32 – Worldwide HSPA subscribers – 2010; 2013
Table 33 – Worldwide LTE subscriber forecast – 2013 - 2015
Table 34 – Worldwide LTE growth – October 2010; January 2011; July 2011; January 2012
Table 35 – Worldwide WiMAX subscribers – 2011 – 2015
Table 36 – Number of Wi-Fi mobile handset shipments worldwide – 2009 – 2010; 2015
Table 37 – Number of public Wi-Fi hotspots – top 10 countries worldwide – mid-2009; early 2011
Table 38 – Worldwide overall mobile handset sales – 2004 - 2013
Table 39 – Worldwide overall mobile handset sales by quarter – 2009 – Q1 2012
Table 40 – Mobile handset revenue worldwide – 2009 - 2014
Table 41 – Mobile handset sales regional market share - 2011
Table 42 – Handset supplier worldwide market shares – 1999 - 2011
Table 43 – Worldwide smart phone mobile device sales by quarter – 2009 – Q1 2012
Table 44 – Worldwide smartphone operating systems by market share – 2007 – 2010; Q3 2011
Exhibit 46 – Examples of Touchscreen Tablets
Table 45 – Worldwide touchscreen tablet operating system market share – mid 2010; mid 2011
Table 46 – Worldwide touchscreen tablet sales – 2010; 2011; 2015
Table 47 – Wireless subscribers and annual change – 2000 - 2014
Table 48 – Canada -total SMS and MMS sent – 2009 - 2012
Table 49 – Latin America – UMTS subscribers and penetration - 2007 - 2012
Table 50 – 3G subscribers and penetration – 2008 - 2012
Table 51 – Mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2008 - 2012
Table 52 – Mobile voice revenue as proportion to total – 2006 - 2012
Table 53 – Annualised European voice and data market annual growth – 2006 - 2012
Table 54 – Mobile voice market Europe in minutes – 2000; 2005; 2010; 2012
Table 55 – Mobile and fixed voice traffic (% of total) – 2005 - 2012
Table 56 – Mobile and fixed voice traffic (volume) – 2005 - 2012
Table 57 – Mobile SMS messaging revenue – 2004; 2006; 2008; 2011 - 2012
Table 58 – Mobile SMS messages sent (select countries) – 2007 - 2012
Table 59 – Total mobile SMS messages sent (select countries) – 2007 - 2012
Table 60 – Market shares of platforms – 2010 - 2011
Table 61 – Japan’s mobile internet subscribers, services and technology by provider – August 2011
Table 62 – KT and SK Telecom WiBro subscribers – 2006 - 2011
Table 63 – Singapore - wireless broadband subscribers – 2007 - 2011
Table 64 – Mobile subscriber overview by mobile network operator carrier in Australia – 2011
Table 65 – Mobile subscriber by major operator in New Zealand – 2010 - 2011
Table 66 – Price comparison of prepaid services by operator in New Zealand – 2012
Chart 1 – South Korea - trends in wireless internet usage rate – 2002 - 2010
Chart 2 –Worldwide market share of M2M connections – 2011; 2020
Chart 3 – Worldwide mobile TV subscribers annual change – 2009 - 2014
Chart 4 – Worldwide LTE Network Commitment and Commercial Networks – Oct 2010 – Jan 2012
Chart 5 – Mobile and fixed voice traffic (volume) – 2005 – 2012
Chart 6 – Morocco – ADSL vs. 3G mobile subscribers – 2007 - 2011
Chart 7 – Safaricom (Kenya) mobile data revenue by service – 2011
Chart 8 – Overview of mobile subscriber market share by operator in Australia – 2011
Chart 9 – Overview of mobile market revenue share by operator in Australia – 2011
Chart 10 – Overview of mobile subscribers per major operator in New Zealand – 2011 - 2012
Exhibit 1 – Approximate data rates for selected services on mobile devices
Exhibit 2 – Digital Dividend
Exhibit 3 –Mobile Apps examples
Exhibit 4 – Global top 10 most popular mobile apps - 2011
Exhibit 5 – Wireless internet operators and services
Exhibit 6 – UMTS900 commercial network operators (3G) in Europe – 2011
Exhibit 7 – UMTS900 commercial network operators (3G) in Europe – 2010
Exhibit 8 – Dharavi – a city in a city
Exhibit 9 – Foursquare - 2012
Exhibit 10 – Mobile video communication: FaceTime and Google Talk
Exhibit 11 – Twitter usage facts
Exhibit 12 –Linked In - 2012
Exhibit 13 – Examples of key players in gaming industry sectors worldwide
Exhibit 14 – Online gambling in the US
Exhibit 15 – Anarchy Online by Funcom
Exhibit 16 – Examples of Location Based Systems (LBS) applications by market division
Exhibit 17 – Gypsii and Twitter tie-up equals Tweetsii
Exhibit 18 – Definition of Geotagging/Geocoding
Exhibit 19 – GPS applications and industry use
Exhibit 20 – A brief history - SMS
Exhibit 21 – Definition: Premium SMS
Exhibit 22 – Sybase 365
Exhibit 23 – MMS for criminal surveillance
Exhibit 24 – Microsoft and HP – developing a Unified Communications platform
Exhibit 25 – Key benefits of USSD
Exhibit 26 – Open Mobile Video Coalition
Exhibit 27 – Mobile TV/Video – emerging across the world
Exhibit 28 – First example of video media collaboration
Exhibit 29 – Mobile devices tipping point
Exhibit 30 – M-Commerce – key developments
Exhibit 31 – M-PESA
Exhibit 32 – Money transfer services
Exhibit 33 – Defined: HSPA, HSDPA, HSUPA
Exhibit 34 – LTE definition
Exhibit 35 – Countries with LTE commercial networks – January 2012
Exhibit 36 – WiMAX Forum
Exhibit 37 – UQ Communications starts WiMAX deployments
Exhibit 38 – What is IMS?
Exhibit 39 – IMS in context with NGN, FttH
Exhibit 40 – Bluetooth SIG
Exhibit 41 – Billions in revenue from replacements handsets
Exhibit 42 – Handset prices in decline
Exhibit 43 – Spotlight on Apple iPhone
Exhibit 44 – Open Handset Alliance
Exhibit 45 – Spotlight on Nokia
Exhibit 47 – Satellite phone
Exhibit 48 – UMTS900 commercial network operators (3G) in Europe – 2012
Exhibit 49 – UMTS900 commercial network operators (3G) in Europe – 2012
Exhibit 50 – HSPA+ network operators in select European countries – 2012
Exhibit 51 – European LTE network deployments – 2012

Broadband in World

Bermuda Number Of Broadband Internet Subscribers (`000)

• $ 250
• Industry data
• February 2013

Yearly, From 2005 To 2017
By Business Monitor International
Source: World Bank (International Telecommunications Union - ITU), BMI research

• Industries : Broadband
• Countries : World

Eurozone Number Of Broadband Internet Subscribers (`000)

• $ 250
• Industry data
• February 2013

Yearly, From 2005 To 2016
By Business Monitor International
Source: World Bank (International Telecommunications Union (ITU)), BMI research, Operators

• Industries : Broadband
• Countries : World, Europe

Aruba Number Of Broadband Internet Subscribers, % Change Y-o-y

• $ 250
• Industry data
• February 2013

Yearly, From 2004 To 2017
By Business Monitor International
Source: World Bank (International Telecommunications Union - ITU), BMI research

• Industries : Broadband
• Countries : World

Cayman Islands Number Of Broadband Internet Subscribers (`000)

• $ 250
• Industry data
• February 2013

Yearly, From 2008 To 2017
By Business Monitor International
Source: World Bank (International Telecommunications Union - ITU), BMI research

• Industries : Broadband
• Countries : World

Montserrat Number Of Broadband Internet Subscribers (`000)

• $ 250
• Industry data
• February 2013

Yearly, From 2006 To 2017
By Business Monitor International
Source: World Bank (International Telecommunications Union - ITU), BMI research

• Industries : Broadband
• Countries : World