Mobile broadband booms as young consumers change use patters.

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Mobile broadband continues to be the most rapidly growing service within electronic communications, as number of subscriptions increased by 50 percent last year, the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) said Thursday.

“It is clear that Swedish consumers wish to have high speeds and mobile services. Demand is driven by the development of services and through young consumers changing use patters,” said Katarina Kämpe, PTS Deputy Director-General.

Last year was also the first time that the number of text messages (SMS) overtook the number of calls. In total, Swedish consumers sent 16.3 billion text messages last year, an increase of 65 percent since 2008. This averaged to about 1,600 messages per client annually, 0r 133 per month.

Swedes also like to surf with their mobile telephones. Traffic for mobile data services increased in 2009 by 103 per cent compared with 2008.

At the same time regular broadband is getting faster. At the end of 2009 almost 40 percent of all connections here were 10 megabits per second or faster.