New research from Analysys Mason predicts that the global total of wireless broadband users will hit an estimated 2.1 billion by 2015, making for service revenues of £392bn ($784bn). Furthermore, the market will be dominated by Mobile Broadband technologies delivered over cell networks.

HSPA will support 88% of all wireless broadband consumers at the end of 2008, and its importance will continue. “Despite the increasing availability of LTE and WiMAX, HSPA and HSPA+ will still support 54% of wireless broadband users by the end of 2015,” according to Dr Mark Heath, co-author of the report:


Developing regions will account for only 17% of wireless broadband customers at the end of 2008, but the lack of fixed-line infrastructure in these regions will bolster the growth of wireless broadband services, and developing regions will account for 57% of wireless broadband customers worldwide by the end of 2015:


The report will make for grim reading at chip giant Intel, where they have been keen to push WiMAX as an alternative to future Mobile Broadband technologies, such as LTE and enhanced versions of HSPA.

This may also help to explain why Intel has recently become so keen to foster the idea of greater interoperability between the technologies, which might otherwise face a slow death in the wider market.