GSA survey confirms 53% surge in new HSDPA products; total approaches 200

(Business News & Technology News, 26 Feb 2007)

Two new surveys from GSA—the Global mobile Suppliers Association, confirm the launch of dozens of new user devices for mobile broadband services enabled by HSPA—High Speed Packet Access, and the rapid evolution of network data speeds.

HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access, is the first evolution of WCDMA, delivering shorter service response times, faster downloads, and new services. WCDMA has 73% share of the 200 3G networks launched globally. Operators deploying HSDPA are able to offer advanced services at lower costs, for increased revenues and profitability.

The GSA survey "HSDPA Devices" published today confirms 196 devices have been launched by 51 suppliers, addressing all segments and comprising 86 mobile phones, 39 PC cards and embedded modules, 34 HSDPA-enabled notebooks, 14 USB modems, 19 wireless routers, two Personal Media Players, a dual-interface ExpressCard/34 & USB, and an HSDPA-connected digital camera. The survey confirms 53% growth in the number of devices launched this year.

Support for all 3G spectrum bands is strong, not only for the widely-deployed 2.1GHz frequency band, but also for 850MHz as used in Australia and the Americas, and 1.9GHz which is also available in the Americas. The survey confirms over 50 HSDPA devices which operate in the 850MHz band, typically together with 1.9GHz, and support for tri-band 850/1900/2100MHz WCDMA-HSDPA operation is becoming increasingly common.

The related GSA survey "HSDPA Operator Commitments" confirms 145 WCDMA network operators in 66 countries have committed to the HSDPA evolution. There are 98 commercial HSDPA networks delivering mobile broadband services today in 53 countries. HSDPA delivers typical user data speeds in the range of 800kbps to 3Mbps. The survey confirms 33 networks support 3.6Mbps (peak). One network has just commercially launched at 7.2Mbps peak capability, while another has announced its network as being "14.4Mbps ready".

About 37 HSDPA devices including 17 phones support 3.6Mbps peak data throughput. Ten devices support 7.2Mbps peak, and eight products are field upgradeable for 7.2Mbps peak. There are four devices that incorporate HSUPA—High Speed Uplink Packet Access, enabling up to 2Mbps peak on the uplink.

HSUPA complements HSDPA and provides many benefits to the mobile network operator including the possibility to offer data speeds up to 5.8Mbps (peak) on the uplink channel. Together with HSDPA, it means a huge stride in network performance. The first network to commercially launch HSUPA—in Austria, was announced on February 22, 2007 and today supports 1.4Mbps peak.

GSA confirms that 50 of the 98 live HSDPA networks have also launched GSM/EDGE, for service continuity and the best user experience. The HSDPA Devices survey shows that over 75% of HSDPA devices also support GSM/EDGE.

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