Three Quarters of 3G/WCDMA Operators Have Launched HSPA

New research by GSA ? the Global mobile Suppliers Association, has confirmed that 3G/WCDMA is now commercially launched by 174 network operators in 78 countries. The GSA's latest survey confirms that 128 HSDPA networks have commercially launched service in 63 countries, i.e. HSDPA is enabled on almost three quarters of 3G/WCDMA networks. A further 50 HSDPA networks are currently in deployment ? making a total of 178 HSDPA operator commitments in 80 countries, an increase of 71% compared with 104 commitments in July 2006. And the number of commercial HSDPA networks has more than tripled in 12 months, from 42 to 128 today.

Most HSDPA networks support 1.8 Mbps data (peak) for a typical user experience of 0.8 ? 1.5 Mbps. The GSA survey confirms the continuing trend of increasing network data speed, identifying 66 operators who have commercially launched or are deploying 3.6 Mbps (peak) data capability in their networks, as the first phase of a planned evolution to 14.4 Mbps (peak) for many operators by end 2007. Some networks already offer 7.2 Mbps (peak) commercial service, leveraging new higher-speed devices coming into the market.

In the uplink direction, High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) services have been launched by operators in Europe and Asia. HSUPA increases uplink data throughput up to 1.45 Mbps (peak) initially, later evolving to 5.8 Mbps (peak). The survey indicates at least 27 networks have currently launched, are rolling out, or are testing HSUPA.

The majority of HSPA network operators also deploy GSM/EDGE for service continuity and the best user experience of mobile broadband services. 71 of 128 commercially launched HSDPA operators (i.e. 55.5%) have also commercially launched GSM/EDGE in their networks."

Posted to the site on 26th July 2007