Digital Lifescapes

The U.S. and Canada added 58 million HSPA and LTE mobile broadband connections annually at the first quarter, which translates to mobile broadband now comprising 49 percent of all mobile connections in the region, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media. Worldwide, 4G LTE achieved an annual growth rate higher than 400 percent at the end of March 2013, ending the quarter with more than 90 million connections -- and that number grew by May 2013 to more than 100 million connections. Today, there are 178 commercial LTE networks in 72 countries compared to about 74 commercial networks in 40 countries one year ago -- that's more than 100 newly launched LTE networks in 12 months. "The Americas is at an exciting technology transition point right now," said Kristin Paulin, senior research analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media . LTE has been extremely successful in the U.S. and Canada where subscriptions surpassed 49 million and the North Amer...

Infonetics Research released excerpts of the findings that resulted from its latest global market study, which analyzed wireless communications radio frequency spectrum allocation and needs in the world’s top economies. “Seven years ago the International Telecommunication Union predicted the world would need twice as much radio frequency spectrum as is allocated now, and that was even before the advent of the data-hungry Apple iPhone," said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research . But if the ITU forecast had held true, all mobile communications networks with significant broadband usage would have crashed by now.Clearly, that prediction never came to pass. So, what happened? HSPA+ and LTE are two of the primary reasons why mobile network operators have been able to squeeze more and more capacity out of their limited spectrum allocation. HSPA/HSPA+ and LTE improve spectral efficiency so significantly that the need for spectrum has been greatly reduced -- of...

According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media , North America continues to lead global LTE market development -- with 10.8 million LTE subscriptions, that's more than two-thirds of the worldwide subscriber base as of March 2012. The U.S. has about 10.5 million LTE connections, while Canada contributes nearly 300,000 connections as of the first quarter 2012. On a global basis, the leading mobile broadband technology, HSPA, with more than 80 percent share of subscriptions in the mobile broadband market today, continues to achieve milestones. There are now 221 commercial HSPA+ networks in 107 countries including 80 commercial HSPA+ Dual-Carrier networks in 46 countries with peak theoretical uplink rates of 42 Mbps. "The surge is beginning for LTE subscriptions as operators gain new wireless spectrum, deploy infrastructure and offer LTE service," stated Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas. "With over 220 HSPA+ deployments around the world...

4G Americas announced that LTE mobile network connections in North America reached 3.3 million -- representing 87 percent of all 3.8 million LTE connections worldwide, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media . This puts the U.S. and Canada in the number one position as global leaders in LTE subscriptions. "The early deployment of LTE in the United States and Canada has put the region in a leadership position worldwide," stated Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas. "It is also one of the key reasons why securing additional spectrum is a requirement for continued mobile broadband progress in serving both consumer and business customers while increasing our much-needed economic development in North America." Without additional spectrum in the region, however, the leadership position will inevitably fall. It is already expected that by 2013 the Asia Pacific region will surpass North America in LTE subscriptions. In Latin America, ...

LTE will still become the mainstay 4G mobile network technology, although its universal use is still in the future. According to the latest market assessment by ABI Research , some service providers will benefit from a dual-platform or multi-platform strategy that's initially based on both LTE and WiMAX. According to ABI research director Philip Solis, "Intel and others are pushing the idea of heterogeneous networks. This is not to deny LTE's long-term position as the leading 4G platform, but to recognize that a small part of the ecosystem will still be characterized by diversity for some time." Who stands to benefit from that multi-platform scenario? Some operators, such as Sprint and Clearwire, KDDI and UQ Communications, and KT, will use both technologies for some time. When asked why network operators would prefer to support multiple technologies, Solis said, "By using both standards, they'll have access to more spectrum, which helps with capacity...

It's not economically viable to upgrade the current UK mobile broadband networks to address traffic demands and improve user experience until 2015, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media . Due to the dense deployment needed to meet coverage requirements, UK HSPA networks will be able to handle current and future traffic demands in the medium-term. Informa does not expect traffic congestion to start appearing until 2013 -- and even then only in certain high-usage areas. As such, Informa believes that large-scale 4G LTE deployments are not a required solution, unless user behavior changes significantly -- putting additional strain on mobile broadband networks. "UK mobile broadband operators are faced with fierce competition while margins from voice are shrinking. Even though there is growing demand for mobile data by smartphones and USB modems, current UK mobile network deployments are so dense that it would make the introduction of LTE both a...

Wireless network modem shipments in 2009 topped 72 million units, a significant growth over the 46.4 million units shipped during 2008. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , both volumes pale in comparison with the expected 93 million units expected to ship in 2010. The overwhelming majority of these modems are found in the USB dongle form factor rather than embedded in their host devices. "Many new mobile broadband networks are being deployed right now," says ABI Research principal analyst Jeff Orr. The HSPA and HSPA+ protocols, as well as 4G WiMAX and LTE, are luring new broadband service subscribers who want their existing computing and communications devices to be enabled for those networks. Orr adds, "We find that new computer sales with embedded modem modules are being adopted between 9 and 12 months after the new network services launch, while USB modems are an immediate upgrade opportunity." ABI practice director Kevin Burden says, ...

3GPP mobile broadband technology (UMTS-HSPA) grew by 11.9 million new subscriptions, of the total (net) 16.3 million mobile subscriptions added in the second quarter 2010 throughout the Americas, according to the latest report from 3G Americas . 3GPP represented 73 percent of the total (net) new connections in the mobile industry in North, Central and South America in the second quarter. "The Americas was the world's fastest-growing region for UMTS-HSPA subscriptions in the year ending June 2010 and helped the technology break through the half-billion milestone to reach 535 million subscriptions worldwide during the second quarter, representing 11 percent of total global mobile subscriptions, up from 9 percent in the second quarter of 2009," said Mike Roberts, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. Only GSM and UMTS-HSPA realized new subscription gains in the Western Hemisphere during the second quarter. GSM added close to 7 million new connections, whil...

Based on data provided by Informa Telecoms & Media , 3G Americas reported that the Latin America and Caribbean region had over 447 million total GSM-HSPA subscriptions as of third quarter of 2009. There were 119 GSM operators serving every country in the region, with 73 million new GSM-HSPA subscriptions added in the year ending September 2009. The uptake of UMTS-HSPA mobile broadband technology is evidenced by its growth -- from fewer than 28,000 subscriptions in September 2007, up to 2.5 million by September 2008, and totaling nearly 12 million in September 2009 in Latin America and the Caribbean. Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean for 3G Americas, says "The number of UMTS-HSPA subscriptions in Latin America grew by 9.4 million in 12 months -- an amazing 380 percent annual growth rate. Clearly, a strong HSPA footprint exists in the region today with 50 commercial networks in 23 countries." Eva Benguigui, Senior Research Analyst at Informa, added ...