The increasing popularity of quick mobile broadband is to eat in to the bandwidth provided by global networks.
Mobile broadband services face a "network nightmare" thanks to improving laptop technology, analysts have suggested.
New data from Berg Insight shows that portable computers enabled for HSPA/LTE - which is a type of fast mobile broadband connection - will increase in global numbers from 8.4 million last year to 49 million in five years' time. Consumer demand for on-the-move connectivity was cited by the firm as a reason for this growth.
However, the lack of capacity currently on offer from network providers will, Berg Insight suggested, provide a significant threat to the rise of mobile broadband. This is because the more crowded a network is, the slower the connections become. Moreover, certain bandwidth-hungry ways of using the connections, such as viewing video, are predicted to grow in popularity in years to come - which would put further strain on the networks.
Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight, said in a statement: "Every mobile-broadband service provider has a dilemma. On the one hand, they have a highly attractive proposition: a novel mobile service with high ARPU [average revenue per user]."
He added: "On the other hand, the very popularity of the service stretches the mobile network infrastructure to its utmost limit, threatening to degrade the level of service for all subscribers."
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