The mobile Internet access market will cater to 136 million people by the end of 2007

The mobile Internet access market will cater to 136 million people by the end of 2007, thanks to the increased mobility of the workforce and the introduction of mobile-specific applications, according to Frost & Sullivan. That's an increase from 2.9 million active subscribers in 2000. Along with the increase in customers will come an increase in revenue for mobile access carriers. Revenue reached $417.6 million from Internet traffic in 2000, and this is projected to surge to $25.89 billion by 2007. Subscribers to mobile Internet services will vary significantly, specifically as to their choice of access device, whether a smart phone, a PDA or a laptop, which will largely influence their usage patterns. Consumers and corporate users will utilize different devices, because they will have different needs. According to Frost & Sullivan Research Analysts Brent Iadarola and Kshitij Moghe, the new packet-data environment requires new pricing strategies in order to regulate traffic. They expect operators to introduce "bucket" pricing for bundled voice and data services with varying bucket sizes for different user segments. The 2001 edition of the "Mobile Cellular Communications" series from Web-Feet Research found that mobile Internet consumers using phones may have to wait a bit longer than originally expected because the recent downturn in the mobile market has caused significant delays in the 3G implementation, but only minor ones in the transition to 2.5G.