LONDON – Today, 16 of the world’s best known IT and mobile companies united behind a GSMA-led initiative to create a new category of always-connected mobile broadband devices, delivering a compelling alternative to WiFi.
The GSM Association (of which Rogers Communications is a member) is the global trade group representing more than 750 GSM mobile operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. The Association’s members represent more than three billion GSM and 3GSM connections – over 86% of the world’s mobile phone connections. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the association’s initiatives.
According to the association, this new partnership will give consumers the freedom to get online on the move, while enabling operators to address what they say is a US$50 billion opportunity in both mature and emerging markets.
Today, more than 55 million people subscribe to mobile broadband services in 91 countries — a number expected to grow by four million per month by the end of 2008, according to Wireless Intelligence.
In the first phase of this collaboration, mobile operators, PC manufacturers and chipset providers are uniting to pre-install mobile broadband into a range of notebook PCs that will be ready to switch on and surf straight out of the box in 91 countries across the world.
To support this initiative, the GSMA has created the mobile broadband service mark, a new global identifier which will help consumers easily identify the array of ‘ready to run’ mobile broadband devices. The mobile broadband service mark is backed by a global media spend of more than US$1 billion in the next year.
“Mobile broadband is like a home or office broadband connection with one crucial difference: freedom. Freedom from hot spots, freedom from complexity and freedom from security concerns," said Michael O’Hara, CMO of the GSMA.
"Today, 16 of the world’s largest technology companies (including Dell, Ericsson, Orange, Lenovo, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Toshiba, and Vodaphone) have committed to change the way people get online forever. This commitment is manifested in a service mark that we expect to see on several hundred thousand notebooks in the shops by the holiday season. The mobile broadband badge will assure consumers that the devices they buy will always connect — wherever mobile broadband is available — and that they can expect a high standard of simplicity and mobility,” he added.
Integrating mobile broadband into notebook PCs is the first step in a wider strategy to deliver wireless Internet access and management to a whole range of previously unconnected devices – from cameras and MP3 players to refrigerators, cars and set-top boxes, says the GSMA release. However, only devices that offer a truly un-tethered mobile broadband experience, such as those offered by the 16 companies announced in today’s program, will qualify to carry the new service mark.
"The mobile broadband initiative is a timely one in that it leverages the increasingly widespread availability of high-bandwidth networks in both developed and developing economies," said Shiv K. Bakhshi, Ph.D., IDC director of mobility research. "While there will always be a place for WiFi connectivity, the great merit of mobile broadband might be that it liberates the user from the spatial tyranny of the so-called ‘hotspot.’”
