Ovum estimates there will be a staggering two billion people using such services by 2014.
Revenue generated by mobile broadband services (via both laptops and handets) will reach $137 billion globally in 2014, says Ovum.
Users of mobile broadband services (3G and 3G+ technologies) will grow from 181 million in 2008 to a massive two billion in 2014.
It's not all good news, however. The market analyst warns that operators will have to contend with user growth outstripping revenue growth, meaning declining average revenues per user (ARPUs).
Ovum reckons the most aggressive growth will come from emerging markets, where the unavailability of fixed broadband offers a major opportunity to mobile broadband players.
For example, 40 per cent of total mobile broadband laptop users will come from Asia Pacific in 2014, with China and India driving growth.
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Michele Mackenzie, principal analyst at Ovum, said: “Several operators have touted the idea of plugging the ARPU decline with value added services, yet we are yet to see anything sufficiently compelling in either the laptop or handset space.”
