Figures just released show that there were more  than 225 million mobile broadband subscribers, for all technologies, at the end of March, with the popularity of mobile broadband remaining at its highest in the Asia Pacific with 90 million subscribers in the region.

According to Informa Telecoms & Media’s latest world cellular Data metrics report, on the extent of non-voice mobile revenues and usage, mobile broadband services continue to be an important source of growth for mobile operators, both as a revenue generator and as a way of retaining customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Informa says that, whilst the popularity of mobile broadband remained at its highest in Asia Pacific, growth was most notable in Latin America, with a whopping 385% year-on-year growth to over 10 million subscribers.

Informa’s principal analyst for growth markets, Nick Jotischky, says that typically in many emerging markets, fixed broadband access remains limited and mobile operators are “seeing the opportunity to use recently deployed third-generation networks as a way of diversifying their revenue streams by connecting millions for whom an internet connection has until recently been out of reach.”

According to Jotischky, the evolution of the device market has also contributed to a surge in mobile data traffic, with Informa estimating that the increased usage in non-voice services has resulted in mobile operators recording total data revenues of US$46.5billion during the first quarter this year, representing an 8.5 percent year-on-year increase on the corresponding period in 2008.

The value of the non-voice market for the whole of 2008 was over US$180 billion, accounting for over 20% of total service revenues.

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Jotischky reports that the spread of the iPhone continues to boost data usage for those mobile operators that distribute the model with O2 reporting that 40 percent of its data traffic in the UK comes from the smartphone market.

“Once the preserve of the corporate segment, the consumer market is now driving the evolution of the mobile data market, Jotischky reports, even though he says the value of the global data market has decreased by 1.8% in the last quarter.

Jotischky explains that the main cause of this fall in the value of the data market is “global currency exchange volatility,” and, he adds, “mobile operators cannot afford to overlook the effects of the economic downturn on consumer spending and especially the discretionary spend of data services.

“Moreover, intense competition and the introduction of bundled offers in order to limit churn has resulted in decreasing SMS revenues for many operators despite an actual rise in traffic.

“Whilst all data services, be they messaging, entertainment, internet or mobile banking services are becoming more central to mobile operator strategies, they are often more successful as retention tools and differentiators than actual revenue generators.”