GSM/3G and LTE Market Update (November 2010)

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) presented a new comprehensive GSM/3G and LTE Market Update (published November 25, 2010). Key findings from several recent GSA reports are highlighted, including operator commitments, deployments, launches and trials of mobile broadband WCDMA-HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE networks. Mobile broadband continues to develop and succeed at a phenomenal pace. Over 99% of the world's WCDMA operators have deployed HSPA on their networks, and this feat has been achieved in just 5 years.

More than 1,000 new HSPA user devices have been launched over the past year, representing annual growth of 60% and raising the total of HSPA user devices launched in the market to 2,776 products.

Migration to HSPA+ is a major trend this year. More than 1 in 5 HSPA operators have commercially launched HSPA+ networks, and the availability of HSPA+ user devices has significantly improved in recent months. 2010 has also been a good year for LTE, with more operator commitments to deploy networks being secured, and the future roadmap of LTE-Advanced recently gaining official approval from the ITU as an IMT-Advanced (4G) technology. Seven LTE systems are commercially launched with many more launches anticipated.