Mobile Data Volume Mostly Carried on Fixed Networks

Mobile broadband might never be a completely satisfactory substitute for fixed broadband access. Many would argue it does not have to be a complete substitute, only a reasonable substitute in some cases. 

Nor, given current trends related to smart phone use of Wi-Fi access, is it necessarily the case that most users ever will want to use mobile Internet access as a primary alternative to fixed access. 

One might be tempted to argue the opposite position, that in fact fixed Internet access routinely handles as much as 80 percent of all smart phone data operations, in which case one might argue that mobile Internet access is, and always will be, supplemental to fixed network access. 

That said, it appears likely that though the volume of data consumed will remain a fixed network function, mobile could represent the vast majority of instances of use. In other words, most of the data will flow over the fixed access network, but most of the sessions could be mobile. 

Smart phone data consumption on Wi-Fi networks ranges from twice to 10 times the volume of data consumed by smart phones on the mobile network, one study has found.