Mobile broadband has room to grow

22-01-2008

by Stephen Errity

There is significant potential for the adoption of mobile broadband by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ireland, according to a new survey.

The study, conducted on behalf of O2 Ireland by TNS/MRBI, revealed 35 percent of owner-managers in the SME sector who used a PC or laptop were considering adopting mobile broadband. Only 14 percent were already using it, but 95 percent had heard of wireless broadband technology in general and 75 percent were familiar with the USB modems used to deliver the service.

Backing up the claims for growth potential in this sector is a report released by Forfas in December which said that Ireland lagged behind the rest of world when it came to take-up of broadband in general. O2 spokesperson Billy D'Arcy commented: "The slow rollout of fixed line broadband in many cases could be compensated for by mobile broadband." O2 believes this to be the case particularly in areas outside of Dublin.

The poor availability of fixed-line broadband is perhaps reflected by the fact that 63 percent of SMEs that don't have broadband currently and had enquired about it found it was not available to them either in their home or office. On a more positive note, in all, nearly two-thirds of SMEs say they now have broadband at their office, which is a jump from 2004 when just 34 percent said they could get high-speed internet access at the office.

Dublin remains the most connected area of the country, with 83 percent of businesses there having broadband in the office. The figures for the Munster, Connacht/Ulster and rest of Leinster counties were 62 percent, 58 percent and 57 percent respectively.

O2 released the survey at the same time it announced that 35,000 customers had signed up for its own mobile broadband offering since it was launched in July of last year. The operator does not have a breakdown between business and consumer users at this stage, according to a spokesperson.

At the end of September 2007, ComReg reported that total mobile broadband subscriptions for Ireland stood at just under 90,000.