Competition of Fixed and Mobile Broadband - Separate Markets, Overlap or Takeover?

Mutual effects between fixed and mobile broadband technologies remain up to this date largely unexplored. The few studies on this subject produce partially contradictory results. Diffusion oriented analysis approaches focused on cross-product effects on growth. Mutual effects on the market potential level have not been studied. In this article we develop and apply two diffusion models, which cover partial market overlap and takeover. We carry out linear and nonlinear regressions with data on country-level broadband adoption. A comparison of the results provides two main implications. (1.) Mobile broadband adoption is stimulated by a high level of broadband adoption; reverse effects on fixed broadband growth are not significant. (2.) A portion of the fixed broadband market capacity is taken over by mobile broadband services. This reduces the untapped market potential of fixed broadband. The results motivate further analyses of moderators for cross-product effects such as demographic and market-oriented country characteristics.