Mobile broadband to be worth US$137b by 2014 (ext: Edge)

Users accessing the Internet via mobile broadband enabled laptops and handsets will generate revenues of US$137 billion globally in 2014, over 450% more than in 2008, according to an Ovum report

However, operators will need to content themselves with the fact that user growth will be far faster than revenue growth, meaning more users and more data traffic, but declining average revenues per user (ARPUs).

According to mobile broadband forecasts by global advisory and consulting firm Ovum on March 26, it estimates over two billion mobile broadband users by 2014.

The most aggressive growth comes from emerging markets, where the unavailability of fixed broadband offers a major opportunity to mobile broadband players.

For example, 40% of total mobile broadband laptop users will come from Asia Pacific in 2014.

The advent of 3G in markets such as China and India, the sheer number of mobile users and poor fixed line penetration in these markets means that broadband access to a very large number of people will be purely “mobile”.

For many though, Internet access will be through the handset. In China, there will be 52.5 million laptop users versus 325 million handset users, a ratio of 6:1.  (Related counters: Digi, TMI, GPacket)