HSDPA Operators Must Give Better Thought to Applications - Report

With the arrival of the first live HSDPA networks and services, the operator community needs to understand exactly what it hopes to achieve with the technology and how to go about doing so. That is one of the findings of visiongain's latest report. HSDPA is now beginning to make market inroads worldwide, with 29 commercial launches as of end-May 2006, and at least a further 32 live networks expected by the end of 2006.

Visiongain says that it expects accelerated momentum in 2007 onwards as the benefits of HSDPA lure investments from 3G operators.

However, while HSDPA upgrades are a logical course of action for most operators, visiongain warns that operators should still carefully evaluate their strategies with this technology and recognise its limitations - HSDPA does not come without costs or risks.

"For most operators, HSDPA is relatively cheap and easy to deploy compared to W-CDMA. And operators are hugely enthusiastic that HSDPA will stimulate data ARPU. However, a faster data rate will not in itself enhance the user experience and stimulate mobile data usage," says visiongain analyst and the report's lead author Goran Nastic.

"Most operators across Western Europe report that only 10% of users with Web-enabled devices are active and regular users," says Nastic, adding that "This has little to do with a plain bandwidth issue. HSDPA is not the answer but it is a step in the right direction."

Posted to the site on 14th June 2006