Mobile internet to replace fixed line?

12/06/2008

Increased sales of laptops and the growing popularity of mobile internet are two of the factors behind suggestions that mobile internet will soon take over from fixed line internet as the preferred means of connecting.

Experts are predicting a massive switch over within two years as mobile broadband prices continue to fall.

A Top 10 Broadband spokesperson said "This trend is as significant as the shift from home to mobile phones that took place in the mid Nineties.

"We predict that by 2010, mobile broadband will overtake home broadband as the default way to access the internet in the UK."

One person in ten now uses mobile connections to access the Net, with a third of those saying they only connect in this way, according to a study by YouGov.

Mobile broadband uses high-speed 3G phone networks to achieve speeds of around 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps), around half of the average home broadband speed.

Experts did say, however, that people wishing to upload or stream a lot of video or other large files would prefer fixed line deals that aren't priced per gigabyte used.