Mobile Broadband and Implications for Broadband Competition and Adoption

This study predicts that the growth of mobile broadband will result in robust competition but warns that those benefits could be endangered if lawmakers "consider new regulatory obligations on broadband providers." By "enabling the convergence of mobile communication services and the broadband Internet, mobile broadband can enable the creation of markets for wholly new services (e.g., mobile health, location-aware multimedia, and machine-to-machine communications), as well as enhancing the value of existing broadband services by allowing them to go mobile," stated Dr. Lehr in his findings. Dr. Lehr discusses the current trajectory toward faster and more capable mobile broadband services, but explains why he expects mobile and fixed broadband services to remain "distinct and complementary services, rather than as close service substitutes in most user/usage contexts." Nevertheless, Dr. Lehr concludes that "the overall impact of mobile broadband will be strongly pro-competitive."