Opportunities abound within the mobile broadband marketplace, which Yankee Group values at U.S.$1 trillion. But that doesn’t mean the road to success is without challenges. In its new Market Vision report, “What’s Next for Mobile Broadband,” Yankee Group breaks down the current state of the market, as well as where it’s going during the next two to three years and how players can take advantage.

Highlights include:

• Worldwide 4G/LTE deployments are proliferating. By the end of 2013, Yankee Group forecasts 114 million active LTE connections globally, increasing to 258 million by the end of 2014.
• The OTT threat is eating into operator revenues. In 2011, mobile operators worldwide generated U.S.$769 billion in voice and consumer messaging service revenue. By 2016, this will fall to U.S.$697 billion.
• Operators will look beyond connectivity for sustainable differentiation. We expect to see more bundling of OTT communications apps with LTE subscriptions as well as operators increasing their portfolio of cloud-based solutions, including offering bundled content storage and backup with premium LTE services.
• Vendors will step up in the customer experience realm. New players including Aito Technologies and Neuralitic will play key roles, as will traditional stalwarts such as Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei.

“As consumers and enterprises increasingly expect always-on connectivity anywhere they go, operators around the world face unprecedented challenges,” said lead author and Yankee Group Vice President Declan Lonergan. “Not only are they tasked with investing in new infrastructure and rolling out next-generation LTE networks at an ever-faster pace (in a decidedly harsh economic climate), but they must also find innovative ways to monetize those new networks, all while fighting increasingly intense competition from OTT vendors intent on stealing away their bread-and-butter voice and messaging revenue.”

About Yankee Group

Yankee Group is the preeminent research and advisory firm equipping companies to profit in a mobile world. The core of our content is proprietary research and analytics on the attitudes, behaviors and usage patterns of mobile users. We provide a range of actionable data, insights and advice to marketing, strategy and product executives driving the mobility revolution in leading companies worldwide. Visit www.yankeegroup.com.