With the industry facing a period of economic uncertainty, data will become increasingly important to operators.

In order to assess how operators and other service providers plan to prepare for this, Bytemobile, in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), recently surveyed more than 220 senior executives from the most influential mobile ecosystem players around the world. Here are the main findings:

Growth expectations for mobile data services are high, with 84 per cent of the total sample – and 92 per cent of operators – expressing their belief that demand will remain robust despite the economy. Most of these operators have already built next-generation networks and need to fill them with revenue-generating data traffic to recoup investments.

Mobile internet consumption is already the fastest growing source of new data revenue for many operators. Vodafone recently reported its non-messaging data revenue to be up 50 per cent in the past year, compared to less than 15 per cent growth in messaging and voice.

Sustaining this rate could be a challenge. The study indicates that the most likely inhibitors will be cost of services (43 per cent of respondents). In emerging markets, monthly mobile internet fees run as high as $100, while in developed markets, they have fallen below US$15 in some cases. Most operators now charge flat rates. Although. the survey showed that cost reduction doesn’t necessarily drive more data usage, it does impact revenue.

Bottlenecks are also a potential issue. As many as 64 per cent of the executives surveyed believe that available bandwidth is becoming increasingly limited for the content and services that users are demanding, and 54 per cent expect network capacity to remain tight over the next three years.

The survey showed that operators are considering proactive management of user behavior to solve any capacity problems. Approximately 56 per cent of respondents see variable bandwidth pricing as a viable solution to bottlenecks, as well as a promising future source of revenue.

Finally, there’s bundling. 29 per cent of operators surveyed believe that creative ways of packaging and pricing both internet access and content are needed to drive mobile data adoption. In order to add perceived value for consumers, content will need to be personalised to suit each user’s interests and needs.

The challenge is on for the entire telecommunications industry to drive data consumption by making the mobile Internet a reality for all consumers and generating substantial value-added revenue streams in the process.