Mobile broadband has been a telecom growth story for the past two years. Connections and traffic have continued to expand, as has associated revenues, although not at the same rate.

Just look at the growth in prepaid mobile broadband users in Asia Pacific. The segment - defined as PC based internet connectivity using a USB modem supporting download speeds at least 384 KB - is expected to increase tenfold to 160 million over the next three years, with the APAC region leading the world by
subscriber additions.

A report from Tariff Consultancy found that in many countries the majority of mobile broadband users are prepaid subscribers.