Long-term evolution to boost the mobile broadband industry

The emerging long-term evolution (LTE) technology in mobilebroadband could help the industry grow during the next five years, a new report suggests.

Predicted to reach roll-out phase in 2012, LTE infrastructure is believed to have the potential to enable consumer and business broadband of speeds around 100Mbps.

According to a study by Juniper Research, advances such as this could help the global mobilebroadband industry become worth in excess of $70 billion (£48.1 billion) by 2014.

Howard Wilcox, from Juniper researcher, said LTE could even deliver speeds over 100Mbps.

"This is at least five times faster than the best mobilebroadband now and around 20 times faster than most people experience via fixed DSL [digital subscriber line]," he explained.

"The challenge for mobile operators is how to make profits yet keep prices attractive enough for subscribers to sign up."

Virgin Media recently signalled its intention to offer broadband at speeds of between 100 and 150Mbps within the next few years.