Tellabs: Mobile net to grow despite economic gloom

Over the next couple of years, consumers intend to dramatically increase their use of mobile data services as they become a necessity rather than a luxury, according to a survey by The Nielsen Company for Tellabs Inc..
by Helen Leggatt
The survey, announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, shows 71% of consumers anticipate using services such as mobile Internet.
The research was conducted in November, 2008, across five of the largest European countries and the U.S., and analyzed 10 mobile data services plus responses from more than 50,000 mobile users in November 2008.
It revealed that more than half of the approximately 200 million mobile data users in those countries expect to increase use in the next two years.
"More significantly, according to the research more than a quarter of the millions of consumers who do not use mobile data services today intend to start using them shortly," said Jesse Goranson, senior vice president of Mobile Media, The Nielsen Company. "By delving deeper into consumer intent, the Tellabs survey comes just in time as the industry debates demand for services and capital requirements at MWC." For current users, the average intended usage increase over the next two years was 58% for U.S. respondents and 55% for European respondents.
For non-users, the average intended usage over the next two years was 27% for U.S. respondents and 28% for European respondents.
In the surveyed countries alone, operators can expect more network traffic from around 175 million consumers for services such as mobile Internet, e-mail, photo uploading, software downloads and MMS as mobile data becomes a consumer necessity.
"Mobile data services are not a luxury, but a necessity that consumers plan to purchase despite economic conditions," said Pat Dolan, vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Tellabs. "By planning urgent and strategic network upgrades, operators can quickly and cost-efficiently address users' issues and meet increasing demands on networks."
Tags: mobile data, mobile data services, mobile Internet, mobile net, Tellabs Inc

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