Failure of Mobile Broadband?

AT&T’s new service plans offer smartphone users less for less, cutting down on both price and bandwidth. Is this an indication of the failure of mobile broadband?

A while ago the news and media made a hype of the potential growth of mobile broadband, while many saw this the next ‘big thing’ on the Internet. While AT&T is not the only country following the business plan of offering less for less to mobile Internet users, this is more visible in growing countries where these plans never had any intentions of changing.

It is a fact that the majority of mobile phone users do not use large amounts of data or bandwidth. As example, a 2Gb data plan will be too much for the average mobile user who will hardly use half of this bandwidth on a monthly basis. In contradiction, with the 2Gb plan you can deplete your bandwidth allotment in 2 hours using a laptop or desktop PC.

Mobile Internet access for laptops or PC’s around the world still remains very expensive and inaccessible for many users due to its high costs. This type of access are used sparingly by the majority of users making use of mobile broadband to access the Internet using their laptops or personal computers.

Looking at the decision of AT&T in revising its mobile plans it makes 100% business sense in offering less bandwidth at lower prices, as mobile phones simply will not become the next ‘big thing’ on the Internet. While many may see AT&T’s decision as restricting Internet access for mobile users, we do not quite agree with this statement.

 In our opinion the Internet never really moved towards catering for mobile phones on a large scale, with only a small percentage of websites really making their services mobile-friendly. Today, the best method of accessing and enjoying all benefits of the Internet still remains the laptop or personal computer via normal fixed line broadband services, which are more cost-effective.