BANGALORE, INDIA: Between 2009 and 2013, worldwide mobile broadband service revenue will more than double. The number of mobile broadband subscribers will hit 1 billion by 2013.

This is according to Infonetics Research's, an international market research and consulting firm, new Mobile Services and Subscribers Market Outlook: Voice, SMS/MMS, and Broadband market size and forecast report.

Asia Pacific leads the mobile broadband race, led by early 3G adopters in Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

Stéphane Téral, principal analyst, carrier and data center networks, Infonetics Research, said: "There is no question that mobile broadband services represent the next big wave of revenue for mobile operators. But make no mistake: voice service is not going away and will keep its lion's share of operator revenue for the foreseeable future, even as mobile operators diversify revenue streams."

Report Highlights
Revenue service providers collect from cellular services hit $624 billion in 2008 (up 13 percent from 2007), and is expected to top $877 billion by 2010.

While service provider revenue from mobile broadband and SMS/MMS (text messaging / multimedia messaging) services is growing rapidly, voice service continues to make up the large majority of service provider revenue.

Voice service revenue will grow slowly through 2013, driven by continuing mobile subscriber growth in developing countries and the gradual move from fixed to mobile voice in developed countries.

LTE service revenue is forecast to grow fast, reaching $41.7 billion in 2013, with the majority coming from North America by 2012, due to Verizon's then AT&T's LTE deployments.

By 2013, W-CDMA/HSPA service revenue will be almost 5 times that of CDMA 1xEV-DO, as the majority of worldwide mobile subscribers are on GSM networks.