Mobile broadband searches hit peak
The rapid update in the UK of mobile broadband internet as a consumer technology has (of course) been echo’d in the search engines with a seemingly inexorable increase in searches for “mobile broadband” over the past twelve months. However, a quick glance at the stats from both Hitwise and Google trends suggests that takeup has now fallen right off, or (at the very least) has hit a meaningful blip. Searches for “mobile broadband” and related phrases hit a peak in early April (or slightly earlier, according to Google Trends) and have fallen quite dramatically (rescued slightly by a recent rally).
Mobile broadband packages allow consumers to plug a ‘dongle’ (basically like a USB stick) into their laptop, and access broadband on the move from anywhere with a mobile phone signal. If you’re in a 3G area you can get up to 7.2Mb (according to the advertising), but even in 2G areas you can get a good, old-fashioned 56K dial up speed.
The fall off might simply be down the UK’s seasonal Q2 slump in broadband demand, which doesn’t really pick up again until the Autumn. However one might have expected the growth for such a new and trendy technology to be slightly more robust.
A quick glance at the Google SERPs for mobile broadband reveal that the main providers - T-Mobile, Orange, Three and Vodafone - all feature heavily, and also show significant competition in the paid search results. Several mobile broadband comparison sites are already up and running, plus the ubiquitous Wikipedia.
