Mobile operators are doing a brisk trade in mobile broadband – the name given to fast internet connections that can be accessed on the move.

According to Dan Warren, director of technology at the GSM Association, the body that represents mobile phone operators, manufacturers and suppliers, a version of mobile broadband network technology called high speed packet access (HSPA) “has been the fastest-adopted mobile technology in history, going from a flat start three years ago to 75m subscriptions at the end of 2008”.