Melbourne – New research from independent analyst house Ovum, estimates the global market for mobile broadband will continue to grow rapidly, and by 2015 one billion people will use it as their only form of internet access. This one billion group of mobile-only customers will account for 28 per cent of all mobile broadband users globally or 13 per cent of the world’s population by then. Ovum forecasts that the Asia-Pacific will lead the mobile-only broadband market, with users forecast to grow from 119.1 million this year, to 518.4 million by 2015. Nicole McCormick, senior analyst at Ovum said that Asia-Pacific’s role is extremely important in the fixed-mobile services (FMS) space: “The region has the third highest penetration rate of 34 per cent, and also has the fastest growing mobile-only penetration of any region.” Ovum’s study noted that the main reason for the strength of the mobile broadband market in Asia-Pacific is a lack of fixed-line infrastructure in heavily populated countries like China and India. But that does not imply that fixed broadband will not grow. Although mobile-only broadband services are growing quickly, broadband Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) services are forecast to increase by 120 per cent globally in the five years to 2015. These users will purchase both fixed and mobile broadband services, providing significant revenue opportunities for service providers, according to a second report from Ovum. Ovum also forecast that FMC users in Asia-Pacific will increase from 259 million this year to 465 million by 2015.