Experts in the industry have stated that mobile broadband operators may do well to follow the example that has been set by O2 UK.

The company has started to offer bundles with fixed broadband and mobile broadband subscriptions, which Analysys Mason says could be the future of the industry, reports CommsBusiness.co.uk.

Matt Hatton, principal analyst at the firm, commented: "For MNOs that are present in the local loop unbundling (LLUB) market, fixed costs are high and they need to achieve scale quickly."

He added that combined fixed-mobile operators could be able to increase the size of their businesses if they take these measures.

This is despite the fact that up until now they may have only been moderately successful.

O2 UK started to offer its customers one year of free 8Mbps DSL when they sign up to the standard broadband service.

This package costs £20 each month and has a data usage limit of 3GB every 30 days.

Mr Hatton went on say that although O2 does not have the best coverage and used to be more expensive than other mobile broadband packages, the new offer makes it increasingly competitive.

He said: "Combining mobile broadband with DSL brings benefits in the form of reducing traffic load on the wide-area network."

In the recent mobile broadband awards, Three emerged as the overall winner, taking four out of eight of the gongs available.

O2 failed to pick up any of the honours while Vodafone and T-Mobile claimed two each.

The Best Overall Provider gong went to Three, as well as Best Value, Laptop Bundle and Pay As You Go services.


Thursday, 16th October 2008

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