Govts 'must act to improve mobile broadband'

Governments must act quickly to support the growth of mobile broadband services to stop bottlenecks clogging up the system, it has been claimed.

Dr Hamadoun Toure, International Telecommunication Union secretary-general, said politicians need to ensure the roll-out of fibre broadband is speeded up.

He went on to suggest that the number of smartphones will increase from 500 million today to almost two billion by 2015, meaning radical action is required to keep up with this rapidly growing demand.

Mobile operators in "high-usage" cities such as San Francisco, New York and London are improving network capacity, Dr Toure continued, but users are often frustrated by inconsistent levels of service.

"Robust National Broadband Plans that promote extra spectrum and the faster roll-out of the fibre networks which are essential to mobile backhaul are vital to support the growing number of data-intensive applications," he remarked.

Recent figures from International Data Corporation showed sales of smartphones reached record levels in 2010 with vendors shipping 302.6 million units worldwide.