US / Europe : There is no doubt that HSPA brings the promise of 3G in terms of user experience (see our report HSDPA: 3G for real). However, the pace of its market adoption will greatly depend on the availability, in volume, of affordable HSPA-enabled devices. The virtuous cycle will need significant signals from the main mobile operators in order to be activated. This is where T-Mobile International definitely plays a role, being one of the most aggressive operators with five HSDPA networks commercially available in Europe. Furthermore, T-Mobile plans to deploy HSDPA in every country where it already offers UMTS FDD services.

The main reason to deploy HSDPA and later HSUPA, is clearly the benefit the technology brings in terms of user experience. By itself HSDPA will not bring new applications to the market but it will enhance all the current services, allowing faster downloads, higher quality streaming sessions and more reliable video telephony. Another advantage is the cost of implementation of the technology into T-Mobiles current UMTS networks, which is small when compared to UMTS network costs. However, in order to use the full capabilities of HSPA, T-Mobile will need to adjust its backhaul network a task that could be expensive, as the operator is mainly using E1 lines for backhaul.