Last year there were 300 million mobile broadband connections around the world – and this will grow to 1.3 billion by the end of 2014, according to a report from Strategy Analytics. Growth of 51.5% is expected this year alone. New technology will help fuel the increase; by 2014, 84% of new connections will be 4G LTE and 11% will be mobile WIMAX (although 3G will still account for two-thirds of all active mobile broadband subscribers).
Another driver of growth will be devices other than mobile phones. In 2014, almost half of all new mobile broadband customers will be using devices other than mobile phones – which means 11% of active mobile broadband subscriptions in 2014 won't be on mobiles, netbooks or laptops but will be connecting a diverse collection of consumer electronics including sat nav systems, media players, eBooks and digital cameras.