4. Mobile Broadband vs. the Wire

So while it looks like higher data speeds are coming for mobile device users, I don't think your mobile phone will be replacing your existing broadband connection anytime soon. First, if Verizon's CDMA2000 1xEV-DO based BroadbandAccess offering is any indication, the services will be expensive - at least at first. The wired broadband industry has done much hand-wringing over customers' resistance to spending $50 / month and has introduced lower-bandwidth, lower priced offerings or added services to keep their customers in the fold.

While corporations may be willing to part with $80 / month per employee, they'll first look at what that expenditure will buy them. The answer as I see it is that higher bandwidth will allow more applications that aren't optimized to be bandwidth-efficient to be available to mobile users and also enable mobile entertainment choices such as streaming video.

The first reason is something that has business value, since it means that companies don't have to pay to either make existing applications more bandwidth efficient or obtain hosted service equivalents, such as email via RIM / Blackberry. Higher bandwidth also allows more satisfactory use of VPN connections, which can be very slow with existing data network speeds.

I don't think, however, that companies will increase their mobile services bill so that employees can have more entertainment choices on the road. Watching TV on your mobile handset's screen may make for a cool demo, but I can't think of many companies that would go for that as a pitch.

The other potential fly in the ointment is the ability of mobile network providers to manage their bandwidth between voice and data services. While wired networks have many options for adding bandwidth, wireless networks can't just grab more spectrum when their "pipes" get full. Providers and users are going to be part of a huge - and I'm sure sometimes frustrating experiment - as mobile network owners try to balance both demands.