According to a new survey published today by GSA, the Global mobile Suppliers Association, 68 HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) networks commercially launched during 2007, representing annual growth of 69%. GSA's latest HSDPA Operator Commitments survey is said to confirm there are 166 commercial HSDPA networks in 75 countries. HSDPA-enabled mobile broadband services extended to 24 new countries during the year. A further 38 networks are committed to HSDPA rollout, to reach a total of 204 HSDPA Operator commitments in 89 countries.
HSDPA is now widely commercially available throughout the APAC region (35 networks), Western Europe (61 networks), Eastern Europe (34 networks), Middle East and Africa (20 networks) and the Americas and Caribbean (16 networks).
HSDPA is the first evolution of 3G/WCDMA, a 3GPP standard delivering advanced mobile multimedia services with typical user throughputs of 800 kbps to 3.0 Mbps, depending on individual networks and device capabilities. WCDMA is deployed in 70% of all commercial 3G networks globally, and almost all have evolved to HSPA as the de-facto system of choice for delivering mobile broadband services.
This latest survey highlights the key trend how networks are quickly evolving to fast mobile broadband speeds. 103 commercial HSDPA networks i.e.62% of launched networks, support downlink data speeds of 3.6 Mbps peak or higher, including 35 networks which support 7.2 Mbps peak.
An evolution is also taking place in uplink data speeds. 51 operators have committed to HSUPA – High Speed Uplink Packet Access, and 26 networks have commercially launched HSUPA service in 22 countries. All the HSUPA launches took place during 2007, with 24 launches occurring in the past 6 months.
Almost 60% of HSPA operators combine with GSM/EDGE for service continuity and the best user experience.
WCDMA and HSPA are part of the evolutionary roadmap for GSM and the natural evolution path followed by GSM network operators worldwide. GSA calculates there are over 1.026 billion GSM, EDGE and WCDMA-HSPA subscribers in commercial HSPA-enabled networks worldwide.
HSPA – Key Facts:
* 204 HSDPA Operator commitments in 89 countries/territories
* 166 commercial HSDPA launches in 75 countries; 69% annual growth
* Over 62% of commercial HSDPA networks have launched with downlink capability of 3.6 Mbps peak or higher data speeds
* 114 HSDPA networks evolving to 3.6 Mbps peak fast broadband speed or higher, of which 103 networks supporting 3.6 Mbps peak or higher downlink speeds have commercially launched in 52 countries
* 35 HSDPA networks supporting 7.2 Mbps peak or higher have commercially launched in 24 countries
* 51 operators have committed to HSUPA with 26 HSUPA networks today commercially launched in 22 countries
* 122 of 204 HSDPA networks (59.8%) combine with GSM/EDGE for service continuity and the best user experience
* 94 of 166 commercially launched HSDPA networks (56.6%) have also commercially launched EDGE
* Over 1.026 billion GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and HSPA subscribers in commercial HSPA-enabled networks
HSDPA is commercially available on 166 networks in the following
countries/territories:
* Americas: Argentina, Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, USA
* APAC: Australia, Cambodia, HK, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, NZ, Philippines, Singapore, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan
* Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech R, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, IoM, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak R, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, UK (HSDPA is launched in 26 of the 27 countries comprising the European Union)
* MEA: Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tanzania, UAE, Uganda