Towards A Healthy Economy + Marketing World

During recent times, one of the things that have been frequently talked about is the fact of the mobile broadband market is going to do well despite the global recession. The segment has been providing growth momentum, as well as higher margins to telecom companies that are witnessing losses from the voice segment. The GSMA Leadership Summit echoed the popular sentiment and went even further to say that mobile broadband could be a major stimulant for growth in the wider economy.

However, the severity of the recession is putting most industries under tremendous strain and it seems that despite what some would like to believe, mobile broadband is not immune to the downturn. Until recently, huge investments for upgrades were expected to take place, but falling revenue is forcing the operators to reduce capital expenditure, and delay their 3G upgrade and 4G development plans.

It has been revealed by The Australian that contradictory to the positive statements coming out of the Mobile World Congress held recently, most operators are considering shelving their investment plans. The paper reports that industry behemoths like Vodafone and T-Mobile, are planning to postpone their upgrade plans as they want to wait till the economic conditions improve. The industry would hope that the postponement of investments does not have a longer term impact on its growth and that it can get back on track as soon as possible.