Wireless broadband and mobile knowledge workers

Australians have adopted wireless broadband with fervor. People can be seen sitting over their morning coffee reading the screen on their mobile phone, or hunched over their laptop in cafes all around the country. This paper explores from a social perspective the behaviours of a particular group of end users who through their use of wireless broadband and mobile devices continue to work anytime and anywhere. In contrast to the telecommuters of the early 1990s who worked from home, this group of end users known as Mobile Knowledge Workers or more generically as mobile workers continue to work away from the workplace but not necessarily in a fixed location such as home. Mobile Knowledge Workers continue to conduct work across a range of locations and rely on their wireless broadband to perform tasks and to keep connected with the office. The results of an online questionnaire demonstrated that through the use of wireless broadband and a range of mobile devices such as laptops, smart-phones, and tablets, Mobile Knowledge Workers continue to productively perform a range of tasks across a number of different locations.