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There are now some 354,000 mobile broadband subscribers in Ireland, up 90pc year-on-year.

Mobile broadband accounts for the fastest-growing segment of the Irish broadband landscape, representing 354,000 subscribers out of 1.6 million subscribers across the country. While the benefits to consumers are clear, mobile broadband represents the ideal mechanism for businesses to ensure that workers on the move are equipped to report real-time and interact with business systems.

The devices – little white dongles that attach to the USB slot of netbooks and notebooks – themselves can range in price. Typically, each connection costs between €20 and €30 a month and some operators provide a prepaid as well as billing service.

The coming year will see businesses begin to unlock the value of mobile broadband for versatility among executives.

“The value of mobile broadband is it allows employees to work from any location nationwide as productively as if they’re in the office,” explains Anne O’Leary, head of business at Vodafone.

“This degree of connectivity has not only ensured that customers get the best service possible, it has also created a new level of flexibility for staff who can give more time to simply getting the job done.

“With real-time data at their fingertips, workers can liberate themselves from the office, cut down on paperwork and take up more customer-facing roles leading to more sales and, ultimately, increased customer service. Most importantly, there are clear advantages in having employees out in the real world, engaging with customers, bringing back to the business customer feedback and first-hand experience of market dynamics, especially in these difficult times,” she says.

Eircom is the latest entrant into the mobile broadband space. Niall Feely of Eircom says that many businesses are deploying mobile broadband for agility purposes.

“Mobile broadband allows businesses to be flexible about where they access their email and other business applications. As competition continues to grow, mobile broadband enables businesses and customers increased freedom and flexibility to use broadband when and where they like outside the office or home. Certain industry sectors have very high requirements for this, in particular companies with a field force that spend quite a bit of time away from the office.

“Eircom Mobile Broadband is about giving our customers the freedom to access vital information on the go. We see it as part of our suite of fixed and mobile solutions, providing the ability to communicate, share data, access applications and respond to requests while away from the office,” he says.

Ronan Whelan, head of enterprise and corporate at Telefónica O2 Ireland, agrees: “Mobile broadband gives employers and employees the flexibility they need to adapt to how they need to do business, which is particularly important in a more challenging economic environment – be it by being on the road more to make sales calls, while remaining connected, or reducing certain overheads such as office rent by having a fully mobile workforce.

“Not only can mobile broadband make the workforce more efficient, productive, and agile, but it is also cost effective. Furthermore, mobile broadband allows near real-time teamwork with team members who may be geographically miles away from each other. The competition in the marketplace today is also such that it is crucial for businesses to remain responsive at all times.”

Source: Silicon Republic