Turning the Masses Onto Mobile Broadband

BERLIN — After two years of rapid growth, mobile broadband, the wireless industry’s most successful innovation of the past decade, is at a crossroads as operators struggle to maintain fast, omnipresent service in the face of exploding Internet traffic.

Since mid-2007, when the first services came on the market, about 16 million people worldwide have signed up for mobile broadband, according to Screen Digest, an industry researcher. In 2008, the number of subscribers almost double.

To expand the geographic availability of its mobile broadband service, 3, a wireless operator owned by Hutchison Whampoa, which is based in Hong Kong, has started sharing base stations in Britain, Sweden and Australia with T-Mobile, Telenor and Telstra, respectively
For complete article click this link 3/16/09 NY Times