REVENUE generated from worldwide roaming fell by 11 per cent in 2017, but is set to now grow at a yearly rate of eight per cent.
Global mobile data roaming revenues are predicted to rise to £23.5billion by 2022, says the latest research.
A new study found that revenues generated from people using their mobile data allowance abroad, will grow by £7.5billion in five years at an annual growth rate of eight per cent, despite the introduction of ‘roam like at home’ plans. Revenues generated from mobile roaming in Western Europe fell 46 per cent in 2017, which brought total worldwide revenues from roaming down by 11 per cent. The Mobile Roaming: Regulations, Opportunities & Emerging Sectors 2017-2022 research also predicted that average usage per person will rise from 500MB to 1.63Gb in the next five years.
Customers may be offered customised, specific roaming bundles and services but also the cost per megabyte is expected to fall in most regions, which will encourage those who turn off data roaming to keep it on.
But, this is all global news and statistics! What will we, the United Kingdom, standing alone post-Brexit, be doing?
Let me look into my crystal ball of the communications future!
Fifth generation mobile network (5G) is on the horizon. According to the BBC Click programme I watched, this will be supplying speeds up to 15 Gigabits per second (Gbps). Currently being 31st in the global league of connectivity, I foresee only London and maybe one or two other major cities may benefit from 5G. This is as they are embracing full fibre and leaving our antiquated copper connectivity networks behind, average speed 37 Megabits per second (Mbps). (1 Gigabit being 1000 Megabits).
What we need is extremely high speed network connectivity all over the UK. This can only be achieved by fibre direct into your building, not to a cabinet outside with outdated copper to your premises. The speed or volume of anything is only as fast as its slowest component. I learnt this many years ago when my brother could only get one particular union of three-eighths of an inch when the rest were half an inch on a very expensive race engine. It lasted five laps of the track at race speed before blowing itself to bits due to oil starvation.
That is now my concern. Is the UK going to ‘blow up’ our chances by refusing to embrace the inevitable future?
Don’t be daft, buy into the future. Insist on full fibre to your premises!