TTI Reports on HSDPA

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network deployments will garner over 60 percent of infrastructure revenue in 2012, according to a new report from Telecom Trends International, Inc. The report, “The Market for Next-Generation Mobile Networks,” says the infrastructure market will generate over $100 billion in revenue in 2012.

WCDMA is the fastest growing technology, giving WCDMA networks unprecedented economies of scale and helping lower equipment costs, said Naqi Jaffery, President and Chief Analyst, Telecom Trends International, Inc. HSPA, an enhancement to WCDMA, will increase both data rates and network capacity and by 2012, HSPA will become the de facto global standard, he said.

The report says EDGE networks will become more spectrally efficient with the transition to “EDGE Evolution” beginning in 2007. EDGE Evolution will add voice and data capacity, increasing data rates up to three times as compared to today’s EDGE networks. EDGE Evolution will garner over 20 percent of infrastructure revenue by 2012, the report says.

According to the report, dual-mode handsets will allow interoperability between HSPA and EDGE Evolution networks, allowing for global, seamless roaming. This will give both the technologies tremendous impetus, it says.

The report predicted that spending on CDMA2000 family of technologies will gradually decline, relegating it to a niche status. Mobile operators with CDMA2000 networks will begin switching to HSPA or EDGE Evolution within the next seven years, it says.

Despite CDMA2000’s advanced capabilities, it failed to win operator interest in most countries of Asia and Latin America where its deployments were expected to grow, the report pointed out. As a result, CDMA2000 will not be able to match the pricing of WCDMA/HSPA and EDGE networks and handsets, putting CDMA2000 operators at a competitive disadvantage, the report says.

Telecom Trends International Inc.