HSPA is the leading mobile broadband technology. This report from GSA tracks worldwide operator commitments, deployments, commercial launches, and spectrum used for commercial service.
According to GSA’s research up to October 25th, 2016 there are 605 operator deployment commitments in 221 countries, of which 601 networks are commercially launched in 221 countries.
Over 72% of HSPA operators have commercially launched HSPA+. 435 HSPA+ networks (21 Mbps and above downlink speed) are commercially launched. 195 42 Mbps DC- HSPA+ networks (one third of HSPA networks) and two 63 Mbps 3C-HSPA+ networks are commercially launched.
Over 400 operators (two thirds) commercially launched HSUPA. 85% of these support 5.8 Mbps peak data throughput on the uplink. Another 22 networks support 11.5 Mbps. It means over 90% of operators with HSUPA support at least 5.8 Mbps peak data throughput on the uplink.
Most 3G/HSPA systems use 2.1 GHz spectrum (3GPP band 1). HSPA system deployment using refarmed 900 MHz (band 8) is also mainstream, with a well established user devices ecosystem. 111 operators in 72 countries deployed HSPA using 900 MHz (UMTS900) in either a single band or within a multiband deployment.
There were 2.232 billion 3G WCMDA-HSPA/HSPA+ subscriptions globally at end June 2016, confirming its current position as the world’s leading mobile broadband technology, which will continue to be the case until 2019-2020.
©2016 Global mobile Suppliers Association