As firms try to balance productivity gains from mobile
computing with cutting down costs, the uptake of cheap broadband
deals will rise, in particular those offering only one-month
deals.
This is vindicated by research from Top 10 Broadband that
predicts that by the third quarter of 2009,
one-month mobile
broadband deals will account for 20% of all mobile broadband
sales. Such deals offer cash-strapped companies great cost
benefits from not being tied into the normal two-year packages that
are currently on offer from the mainstream mobile broadband
suppliers.
Top 10 Broadband says that it has seen the popularity of short-
and no-contract home broadband packages soar in recent months and
predicts that a similar pattern will emerging in the
mobile broadband market where it estimates one-month sales
have grown four-fold since the start of the year, now accounting
for 5% of total mobile broadband sales.
Among the mobile broadband suppliers in the UK, O2 is the only
major supplier offering such one-month deals whereby users pay
£29.95 for a mobile broadband modem or dongle and then pay at a
rate of £5 per Gbyte of download.
Top 10 Broadband is confident that it is only a matter of time
before its rivals in the cut-throat mobile broadband sector will
follow suit.
Explaining the background to the trend, Jessica McArdle,
marketing manager at Top 10 Broadband said, “One-month mobile
broadband deals are soaring in popularity during the current
recession as wary
users are shunning long-term broadband contracts in favour of
‘light’ commitments. Last year, mobile broadband changed the UK
broadband industry forever; now with new one-month deals, mobile
broadband is continuing to cause game-changing shockwaves. Many
fixed-line only broadband providers must be quivering in their
cabled boots.”