Mobile broadband is becoming a more popular option than Wi-Fi hotspots which are location specific, it has been claimed.

Through mobile broadband, users have access to the internet anywhere in the country, rather than having to rely on finding a place with Wi-Fi access, reports Point Topic.

The company reports that 47 per cent of people who use the internet away from home use mobile broadband.

Wi-Fi hotspots, on the other hand, only make up 42 per cent of the market share.

O2 was found to be the favourite provider of mobile broadband with over one-quarter of users opting for their service.

Vodafone and Orange each accounted for 20 per cent of the market while T-Mobile and Three attracted 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, commented: "Vodafone is top in dongle-user market share with 24 per cent of respondents. O2 comes in at 23 per cent followed by Orange, T-Mobile and Three."

Despite this, the number of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the world has increased by 46 per cent from the first half of 2007 to the same period in 2008, reports iPass.

Business users in London are likely to find it easy to log-on, although Singapore and Tokyo also ranked highly.

Europe accounted for 70 per cent of the growth in the global Wi-Fi access while north America now accounts for only 45 per cent of the total usage, an 11 per cent decrease from last year.

The Asia Pacific grew by more than 50 per cent, leaving it with six per cent of the total worldwide share.


Thursday, 25th September 2008

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