150% Surge in HSDPA Network Launches in 3 Months

US : The number of HSDPA networks planned, in deployment or launched has reached 108 in 51 countries, according to new survey data released today by GSA - the Global mobile Suppliers Association.

The GSA survey confirms 45 commercial HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access - the first evolution of WCDMA) networks have launched worldwide, representing growth of 150% over the past three months.

HSDPA is a natural step in the evolution of GSM, bringing broadband speeds to mobile networks and offering highest performance at lowest cost, enabling true mass-market mobile IP multimedia services. The majority of 3G/WCDMA operators are deploying HSDPA in their networks as the new baseline for the full mobile broadband experience. HSDPA networks are commercially launched in 33 countries/territories, in the Americas (USA), APAC (Hong Kong, Malaysia, The Philippines, South Korea), Europe (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Madeira, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, UK) and the Middle East & Africa (Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE).

GSA today raised its prediction for the number of commercial HSDPA networks by end 2006 to reach 80.

HSDPA rollout has been strongly evident in Europe, with 15 of the EU25 countries now delivering commercial HSDPA services, and network deployments planned or underway in a further 7 countries.

A High Speed Packet Access network benefits the operator by leveraging existing assets, including:

Spectrum
Subscriber base
Network infrastructure (sites, radio, core network, transmission)
Operation and Management system and staff
Subscriber management systems (authentication, billing)
For end-users HSDPA means shorter service response times, faster downloads, and new services. Operators are able to offer advanced services at lower costs, and with increased revenues and profitability.

On July 1, 2006 GSM celebrated 15 years in commercial service, over 2 billion subscriptions and over 81% share of the worldwide mobile communications market. Continuous development, a vast eco-system and economies of scale ensure the lowest Total Cost of Ownership for GSM network operators and users. GSM is the key, future-proof platform for growth and mobile access to the Internet and broadband, enabled by the GSM system family - EDGE, 3G/WCDMA and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), to be followed by LTE (Long Term Evolution).

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