Wireless broadband developments in Australia - an industry perspective

Rapid consumer adoption of mobile devices is driving increased data traffic as consumers seek to utilise a range of applications and services, including mobile broadband, emails, videos, social networking, online banking and shopping. This paper explores the rapidly growing demand for latest generation mobile data applications and services, particularly mobile broadband, from a mobile telecommunications industry perspective. Mobile data traffic is forecast to increase at a compound annual growth of 95 per cent to 2014. Mobile telecommunications plays a key productivity-enabling role in the digital economy. Mobile operators must have access to sufficient radiofrequency spectrum and be able to deploy network infrastructure (base stations and towers) efficiently if they are to meet consumer demand. AMTA strongly believes Government policy must encourage continued investment in infrastructure and innovation to ensure that the benefits of mobile broadband and a growing digital economy can be realised by all Australians.