WiMax Hasn't Won Yet--Says HSPA

High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) wireless technology is here today in some markets and getting faster, and may end up being more popular than WiMax and other emerging broadband wireless technologies.

Of course, that's the view of the GSM Association (GSMA), which represents HSPA carriers globally.

The reason HSPA could prove more popular than other alternatives is that it is built upon GSM networks, which reach 2.5 billion users today. GSM handsets can cost as little as US$20 apiece.

There are 128 HSPA commercially available networks in 61 countries, reaching at least 5 million users.

The GSMA represents more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators in 218 countries and territories. GSM provides the underpinnings of HSPA, which many refer to as a 3.5G wireless technology. HSPA is a software upgrade from W-CDMA networks, which were built atop GSM.

GSMA is not attacking WiMax technology, but GSMA is saying "there's not a huge difference in performance" between what WiMax and HSPA will eventually offer.

Across the commercially available HSPA networks globally, 1Mbit/sec. is about the average speed, although an Austrian carrier has nearly doubled that number. And the peak rate, for some, is 7.2Mbit/sec.

Juniper Research also forecasts that HSPA would dominate mobile broadband network deployments over the next five years, and make up 70% of the total mobile broadband subscriber base until 2012. In that year, more than 1 billion people will subscribe to a mobile broadband service, out of 3 billion in all.

WiMax will perhaps reach 9% of the market total in 2012.

Go HSPA