The rise and rise of mobile broadband

The table shows that each iPhone or Android device uses as much data as 4 ordinary smartphones, and each iPad or tablet uses 5 ordinary smartphones worth of data. But mobile connected laptops are the biggest consumers, and that will only get worse as more and more computers are delivered with embedded SIM cards. Apple and telcos figured out how to do this with the iPad, and can it be far away before the arrival of Macs with 3G cards inside? Days perhaps. Regardless of whether it’s embedded or a stick, mobile broadband enabled devices are set to become the norm.

Meanwhile the amount of traffic that each device generates will also increase – as technology gets better and the mobile prices drop and use cases emerge.

The outcome is simple – Cisco estimates that global mobile data traffic grew 159% last year and will grow another 131% this year. They contend traffic will increase 26 times versus 2010 levels, a 92% cumulative annual growth rate.

I hope the network engineers are ready.