Posted: 25th Mar, 2010 By: MarkJ
ABI Research has reported that global 3G ( HSPA ) based Mobile Broadband subscriptions surpassed 271 Million at the end of 2009 with a Year-over-Year growth rate of 43%.
ABI's Vice President of Forecasting, Jake Saunders, said:
"There is still some mileage in EDGE subscriptions (28%) and GSM voice-only subscriptions (8%) but otherwise GPRS subs are shrinking. However 3G and 3.5G subscriptions are ramping up as the ‘need for speed’ encourages end-users to upgrade. At the end of 2009, there were 181 million HSPA subscriptions."
ABI warns that mobile operators will need to evolve to multiple devices per subscription to retain customers. There's no mention of the critical need for more capacity.