Wi-Fi is on a slippery slope, Ericsson’s Chief Marketing Officer Johan Bergendahl said on Monday, and there is one logical explanation for that: the mobile broadband is on the roll and growing stronger than fixed telephony.

In a keynote at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm, Bergendahl said : “In Austria, they are saying that mobile broadband will pass fixed broadband this year. It’s already growing faster, and in Sweden, the most popular phone is a USB modem.”

Bergendahl sees a faster growth in mobile broadband networks than any fixed telephony, which in his vision places like Starbucks “are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era. In a few years, it will be as common as Wi-Fi is today.”

One the elements that come to support his affirmation is the affordable price for a mobile broadband subscription ($31/month) in some European countries, such as Denmark, Sweden or Austria, while another element is HSPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), which Ericsson has had great support for. The company announced signing a deal with Lenovo to incorporate the HSPA technology into their notebooks.

The matter isn’t as simple at this moment, but is could simplify as long as carriers will agree to cooperate so as to break international boundaries: “Carriers need to work together. It can be as simple as paying €10 per day when you are abroad.”

There is still a long way to go, as wireless broadband is still quite expensive and it needs some coverage adjustments. And there will be a lot of beneficiaries if Bergebdahl’s predictions will come true, as many expect it to become widely available, especially people who travel a lot.

In the upcoming years, we can expect to see some changes in this respect, as customers are asking for a reliable, fast and safe service. At the same time, laptops could ease up the work, by becoming 3G equipped.