How about spending that $1 billion to FIX mobile broadband?

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- The GSMA and 16 major IT and mobile companies are planning to spend $1 billion to convince you to use cell phone data (mobile broadband) instead of Wi-Fi. Instead, why don't they just use that money to make mobile broadband better or cheaper?

As part of the effort, the GSMA has created a "Mobile Broadband" service mark (see the mark below), which is basically two seagulls and the words "Mobile Broadband," presumably to be used in ads and on stickers. The group says they'll spend $1 billion in advertising to push the mark. The effort also involves integrating mobile broadband into laptops more broadly, then promoting the use of that capability to buyers.

Here are the companies backing this effort: 3 Group, Asus, Dell, ECS, Ericsson, Gemalto, Lenovo, Microsoft, Orange, Qualcomm, Telefónica Europe, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Toshiba and Vodafone.

The press release announcing the initiative listed benefits of mobile broadband, including the idea that it "liberates the user from the spatial tyranny of the so-called 'hotspot.'" I love that: the tyranny of the so-called "hotspot."

I'm a little bothered by the spending of a billion dollars to essentially raise awareness about mobile broadband, as if the reason it's not taking off faster is that people are unaware of it.

The trouble with mobile broadband is:

1. Mobile broadband is way too expensive

2. Far too few cell phones support tethering

3. Roaming charges and other carrier billing "gotchas" turn people off from mobile broadband

4. Coverage is still too spotty

Rather than spending a billion dollars to talk me into using mobile broadband, why doesn't the industry spend that money to give me a reason to use it. Fix the problems, costs and annoyances of mobile broadband, and everyone will flock to it.

The last thing we need on our laptops is more stickers.

Like this stuff? Subscribe to the RSS feed.