Mobile broadband is helping our economic growth, a new report showsThe emergence mobile broadband is driving Australia’s economic growth, leading to a $33.8 billion boost to economic activity in 2013, or over 2% of total GDP.
But its not just money, the ability to work on the go is also improving our productivity, according to Australia Communications and Media Authority research.
Mobile broadband, connecting to the internet via dongles, tablets, smartphones and data cards, has shaped the way we communicate and this trend is expected to continue.
Faster 4G networks are set to rocket data traffic, which is set to grow 866% by 2017.
The ACMA research, released in report, The Economic impacts of mobile broadband on the Australian economy from 2006 to 2013 surveyed over 1,000 local businesses, and data usage stats.
Surfing the web on mobile broadband is expected to rocket by 38% per year over the next three years.
By 2017, we’ll be guzzling 3GB data per month on our faster 4G devices, or almost double the 1.7GB current consumption.
By 2017, businesses will be using 20PB per month, while household’s mobile internet usage to rise by 260% to the tune of 57PB. A ‘petabyte’ equals 1 million GB.
25% of businesses surveyed also said adopting mobile internet cut costs. Two-thirds of businesses expect the impacts of mobile broadband to grow over the next five years compared to 2006-13.
