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Mobile Phones and Internet

Increased use of mobile phones to access the

Internet has created a need to adapt the way
in which bandwidth connectivity is
measured. Since 2000, the OECD has
assembled and reported broadband data to
capture and record significant changes in the
markets for Internet access. While some
wireless broadband technologies (such as
fixed wireless and satellite) were contained
from the outset, they have accounted for only
a small percentage of entire connections. In
fact, even as of December 2008, less than 2
per cent of all reported broadband
subscriptions were wireless. Due to speed
restriction and difficulties determining actual
use, however, Internet-enabled mobile
phones were not included in the OECD
broadband statistics.
.
In recent years, however, telecom
manipulator have invested large amounts in
the improveing of mobile networks (such as
HSDPA, CDMA2000 upgrades and CDMA2000
WiMAX) to provide higher speed
connectivity. This has made it important to
develop a methodology to better measure
wireless broadband connectivity. Following
contributions from member countries, in
February 2009 the OECD presented a
proposal for a new indicator made up of four
major components: satellite, WiMAX,
other/evolving and mobile broadband
connections. All constituent include
connections with advertised data speeds at
256 kbit/s or higher.
.

The mobile category posed particular

difficulties. Many mobile phones are
“broadband capable” but never actually used
to access the Internet. The challenge is .
therefore to find a way to integrate the
mobile segment with other wireless
technologies to create a meaningful and
useful statistic. Following discussions at an
expert meeting on 19–20 February 2009 in
Lisbon, it was proposed that only
subscriptions with actual Internet data usage
during the previous three months should be
included in the mobile broadband
component. The mobile component also
includes a subset counting the number of
dedicated or “stand alone” data
subscriptions. In the other categories, there is
no actual use requirement for dedicated data
.
subscriptions.