Wireless Net Connections Will Dominate By 2005

There will be more wireless connections to the Internet than fixed ones in Europe, Asia Pacific and the US, by 2005. According to a study released by KPMG, titled "Mobile Internet _ Any place, any time, everything", KPMG says that by 2005, there will be 1.2 billion mobile users worldwide.

"Mobile operators will need to transform themselves from voice-centric network carriers to data-centric service providers," the report says. This change will have an equally large impact on every organisation that wants to transact with the new economy (which will be known as Mobile Internet World).

What's more, the report says that by 2003, more consumers will access the Web via mobile phones than by personal computers. In Europe alone, the market for m-commerce has been estimated at Euro 23 billion by 2003 compared to a mere Euro 300 million in 1998. The popularity of wireless devices for voice communications and the subsequent substitution of fixed phones will accelerate the adoption of broad-band mobile services.

The KPMG report says that in this new economy (or the mobile Internet world), 45 per cent or more of traffic will be non-voice.

"The business focus for operators will need to rapidly shift from voice-centric, circuit-switched providers of products to data-centric, IP-based service providers. Not all will successfully make the transformation."

In the next decade, the number of mobile users is predicted to quadruple and the usage of airtime for voice to triple.

"Mobile Internet-enabled laptops will free people from their desks, creating mobile offices, mobile application hosting and mobile e-commerce or m-commerce," the study says.

Moreover, in the so-called "Mobile Internet World" operators will not only have to adopt new business models, "but also forge new relationships with customers and vendors alike," says the study.