Recession spurs one-month mobile broadband

• 
  Joe O'Halloran
• Published: 20 Mar 2009 9:53

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.”