HSPA nears 500M connections

It was announced at the GSMA Mobile Health Summit that the number of broadband connections will hit 500 million at the end of this month, making HSPA the fastest growing wireless technology ever.

The GSMA announced that HSPA-based mobile broadband connections will reach 500 million worldwide by the end of this month, a landmark it claims will make HSPA the fastest-growing wireless technology ever. Citing figures from Wireless Intelligence, the GSMA also noted that LTE connections have now reached 1 million – only 18 months after the first commercial LTE network launched. The fast adoption of both technologies was attributed to ‚explosive‚ global demand for smartphones, connected tablets and mobile broadband dongles. There are now more than 19 million HSPA connections being added each month and it is predicted that the industry will reach 1 billion HSPA connections by the end of 2012. Some 300 million LTE connections are expected by 2015.

‚Mobile Broadband has helped to reshape the tech landscape and bring ubiquitous Internet connections into the palm of your hand,‚ said Joss Gillet, senior analyst at Wireless Intelligence. ‚The fast adoption of mobile Internet services has been fuelled by a rapid price erosion of devices, a demand for innovative offers and tariffs, as well as expansion of network coverage.‚ The firm noted that more than 3,100 devices support HSPA and there are now 350 live HSPA networks across 132 countries worldwide. Furthermore, 88 HSPA networks across 50 countries have been upgraded to HSPA+ with a further 52 network upgrades planned. HSPA+ offers theoretical peak download speeds of 84Mb/s, potentially rising to 168Mb/s if deployed in wider spectrum bands. The GSMA called for more spectrum to be made available to support further growth.