Forecasting user demand for wireless services: A socio-economic approach for Europe

This article reports the findings of a study for the European Commission to forecast demand for mobile communications services up to 2020. The study used a socio-economic approach including scenarios to explore the future and an original methodology for estimating traffic volumes under different socio-economic conditions. This article describes the objectives, outlines the methodology and summarises the results of the study. The study’s findings lay the foundation for a European consensus for calculating future spectrum requirements and are an important part of the process in the lead up to the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2007.