As Telecom and Vodafone race to market with HSPA+ network upgrades and 2degrees goes 3G, how will the business case for faster data speeds stack up?

Compuware, the US-based software company that optimises end-to-end application performance for 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies, has today released a report identifying the top four business challenges for mobile data providers. In the study top executives from 22 telcos around the world were interviewed.

The study distilled the issues faced by mobile providers into four categories:

1. Declining Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU)

2. Increasing customer churn (customer turnover)

3. Declining customer satisfaction

4. Rapidly rising mobile infrastructure and support costs

The study's release marks the launch of Compuware Vantage for Mobile – an integrated solution that provides a real-time view of a customer's mobile data experience.

Compuware global director to telecoms strategy Ian Clarke (pictured) says by understanding individual subscriber experiences a mobile operator can build a more complete picture of why revenue falls and customers churn.

“In this new world, the price of having no real-time visibility into a subscriber's experience of mobile data services is an unsustainable combination of decreasing profit and escalating subscriber churn.