US : Mobile communications infrastructure vendors and carriers, impatiently waiting to offer their customers mobile broadband services, would do well to consider HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) as an economical alternative.

The prerequisites, according to Edward Rerisi, Vice President of ABI Research, are the rollouts of the next-generation UMTS networks that are starting to take place in Europe and Asia, and are planned for other regions.

"This is an opportunity for infrastructure vendors," says Rerisi. "There will be a natural progression to HSDPA soon. Many vendors are already selling equipment that's HSDPA-ready, and only requires some software upgrades. It's an even better opportunity for mobile operators, who should be able to switch on HSDPA relatively quickly, once they have their networks rolled out."

The area covered by these networks should expand and fill out very quickly starting in about 12 months, according to ABI Research. The arrival of this technology should boost data traffic and revenues, as well as demand for data cards.

What about WiMAX's promise of ubiquitous broadband? IEEE 802.16e will most likely be offered mainly in dense metropolitan areas, says Rerisi, and while it will be faster than HSDPA, and cheaper per bit, the upfront deployment costs are much, much higher.

These and other developments are addressed in two ABI Research studies and one of its subscription services. HSDPA - Mobile Broadband explores and quantifies the evolution of 3G UMTS cellular systems to HSDPA. It analyzes the drivers to these higher data rates, and compares them with other technologies by which high speed data can be offered to a mobile platform. Cellular PC Card Modems examines the meager demand for CPC technology in the past, and the drivers behind potentially much larger volumes in the future. Finally, the Wireless Infrastructure Research Service provides current data on the deployment of wireless infrastructure worldwide.