The Info Examiner

GSMA had recently announced that mobile broadband has the power to pull the economy out of recession but it seems the belief of the world’s leading body representing the mobile industry is in stark contrast to recent trends. Nearly every major mobile provider or device manufacturer is witnessing decreasing profits due to declining customer interest and shrinking demand.

The very notion of the mobile broadband industry being recession-proof has taken a severe beating and it seems that the economic downturn has finally caught-up with the misplaced confidence. All the noted broadband providers and mobile manufacturers have seen the sales of their products plummet and as a result, new rollouts have been put on hold. It is easy to understand their situation as launching new services makes little sense when the market sentiment is getting increasingly negative. Most of the operators have put their awaited upgrade to 3G and investments for the 4G services on the back burner.

The recently held Mobile World Congress heard that investments wouldn’t see a significant decline, but leading newspapers have reported that players like T-Mobile and Orange are likely to check their momentum towards 4G.

No one knows for sure when the economy will see an uptick, but until that happens no industry seems immune, and big investments are likely to flow from the government and not from the private players.