3 has announced that it has sold one million mobile broadband dongles and subscriptions so far in Europe. Since the mobile broadband service started late last year the company has seen growth in custom from both people who want to supplement their fixed-line broadband service, or replace it altogether.

Christian Salbaing, managing director for Hutchison Whampoa European telecoms, commented: “For many customers, it is their first personal broadband connection. However, due to the high wholesale data roaming costs charged between mobile operators in Europe, it remains very expensive for consumers to use mobile broadband while travelling abroad and roaming onto other networks.”

Salbaing also took the opportunity to call for the EU to regulate roaming prices:

“The EC has an opportunity to bring the same clarity and value to data roaming as it did so successfully with voice last year. The difference between domestic and roaming data rates is far greater than with voice - only wholesale action can put an end to charges that are sometimes hundreds of times greater than our customers pay at home. A million connections in a matter of months from a comparatively small business makes it abundantly clear that mobile broadband is already a mass market proposition.”

Source: Mobile News

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