GSA Confirms 50% Jump in HSDPA Network Launches in 3 Months

GSA - the Global mobile Suppliers Association has announced that 130 mobile operators have committed to HSDPA network deployments in 60 countries, of which 73 networks have commercially launched mobile broadband services in 42 countries. It means an increase of 25 in the number of commercial networks in the last 3 months, representing 50% growth. The first HSDPA networks entered service just one year ago. GSA estimates there will be between 85-90 HSDPA networks in commercial service by end 2006.

In Europe, business users and consumers in 18 of the EU 25 countries are benefiting from commercial HSDPA services, and network deployments are underway in a further 4 countries. Worldwide, commercial services are available in the following countries/territories:

Americas: Canada and USA

APAC: Australia, HK SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, S. Korea, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan

Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Madeira, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Spain, Switzerland, and UK

Middle East/Africa: Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and UAE

The GSA recently reported that 19 suppliers had launched 66 HSDPA devices, including 32 handset models. HSDPA operators are also reporting a significant increase in data consumption on their networks by users with HSDPA devices, compared to previously available systems. Most HSDPA networks are delivering typical data throughputs of 0.6 - 1.5 Mbps. The GSA survey also confirms that 15 commercial HSDPA operators, i.e. over 20%, currently support 3.6 Mbps data speeds in all or part of their networks.

The survey further confirms that HSDPA operators also deploy GSM/EDGE for service continuity, and the best user experience, in areas outside HSDPA coverage. 35 of the 73 commercially launched HSDPA networks have also commercially launched EDGE."

Posted to the site on 8th November 2006