Global mobile penetration and subscriber numbers

Wondering how many mobile subscribers are there on planet earth??? Well by end of December, 2012 global mobile subscriptions were around 6.3 billion, growing at about 9 per cent year-on-year - as per a report by European telecom equipment maker Ericsson. According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, total mobile subscription in China stood at 1.26 billion, while in India it was 713 million in 2012. The net additions in the fourth quarter of 2012 were 140 million.

So what is Global wireless tele-density. Well, Global mobile penetration reached 89 per cent in Q4 2012. However if you looking for unique users figures, the actual number of unique users were around 4.4 billion, thanks to people having several subscriptions. 

If you are wondering which countries are adding most subscriptions, then the report answers your query. China accounted for about 22 per cent of net additions, adding around 30 million subscriptions, followed by India (11 million), Bangladesh (9 million), Indonesia (8 million), and Nigeria (5 million).

As far as mobile broadband subscribers are concern, In Q4 of 2012, mobile broadbandsubscriptions grew 125 million to 1.5 billion, reflecting a 50 per cent year-on-year increase. GSM, GPRS and EDGE subscriptions grew 44 million and WCDMA and HSPA grew 70 million. Together these technologies represent 80 per cent of total net additions. That apart, LTE subscriptions grew from 14 million to 57 million in 2012

Download speed of 28 Mbps offered by Singapore's Mobileone - Wired-line broadband's fag end begins?

Singapore's MobileOne (M1) has announced a further upgrade of its HSPA+ network to support mobile broadband download speed of up to 28 Mbps in selected areas. The increased speed has been achieved with the installation of MIMO (Multiple-input-multiple-output), making M1 HSPA+ network the first in the Asia Pacific to adopt this technology. MIMO is expected to be rolled out to the entire network progressively. Huawei has provided the upgrade.

Meanwhile, M1 will be offering mobile broadband service with download speed of up to 21Mbps island-wide from this Saturday. The M1 HSPA+ network has been capable of delivering download speed of 21 Mbps since July this year, although the company says it held back its commercial launch pending the arrival of customer terminals.

In a year or so the same can be expected in other major telecom markets of world - India & China. Does that indicate that the fag end of wired-line broadband has just begun.

Nokia Siemens makes world's first LTE call on commercial software

­Nokia Siemens Networks claims that it recently made the world's first LTE ( Long Term Evolution ) call using commercial base station and fully standard compliant software. The Nokia Siemens Networks' call was made via base stations with fully complaint software to the 3GPP Rel.8 (March 2009 baseline) LTE standard, bringing LTE trials closer to the behavior of future commercial deployments. The LTE data call was conducted in Nokia Siemens Networks' R&D Centre in Ulm, Germany, with its Flexi Multiradio Base Station.

The first deployments for LTE services are foreseen for the end of 2009 with volume rollouts of commercial networks in early 2010. Nokia Siemens Networks has already shipped LTE compatible Flexi Base Station hardware to over 80 operators

Is WiMAX out of 4G race ?

I found the recent reports on HSPA and WiMAX users data very interesting. Does the reports indicate that the WiMAX is out of 4G race ? Pl go thru -

As per the GSM Association reports - The number of live HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) connections will pass 150 million globally this summer, while according to a report published by Marvedis this week WiMAX has just 3.5 million users. This puts HSPA firmly ahead of other mobile broadband technologies.


As per Wireless Intelligence reports , EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) have 49.5 million HSPA users currently and almost 60 million predicted by the end of the summer. Asia-Pacific is a close second at 47.7 million subscribers and by the end of September will have over 56 million. The U.S. trails significantly, with about 32 million HSPA connections growing to perhaps 37 million by September, while the rest of the Americas will hit just over four million subscribers in the same time frame.

Why HSPA may be a prefered choice to operators -
HSPA is an attractive option for mobile operators as the technology allows operators to upgrade their existing 3G networks, often by simply upgrading the software. This gives HSPA a leg up over WiMAX, which requires new network infrastructure. Further, its performance rates are attractive, as well. HSPA download rates range from 3.6 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps, and a handful of operators are beginning to roll out 21 Mbps using HSPA+.

The GSMA reports that there are more than 300 upgraded networks across 127 countries. More than 1500 HSPA-enabled devices are on the market. Its rapid adoption — faster even than SMS — has led the organization to embrace HSPA as the dominant mobile broadband technology.

The report expects growth to continue at a rapid pace, predicting 200 million connections by the first quarter of 2010.

QUALCOMM tests 20 Mb/s speed using HSPA+

As per telecomweb news Qualcomm has completed what is characterized as the "world's first data call" using High-Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) network technology, achieving a data transfer rate of more than 20 Mb/s in a 5 MHz channel.

The Qualcomm results were nearly twice as fast as the highest previously-reported HSPA+ results, in which Nokia-Siemens Networks demonstrated 10.1 Mb/s downlink performance. Both tests are highly significant in the positioning of HSPA+ as the interim generation between the current HSPA wireless broadband, typically delivering between 1 Mb/s and 2 Mb/s, and the eventual adoption of the much faster Long Term Evolution (LTE), with a theoretical 173 Mb/s bandwidth.

HSPA+, seen by many analysts as the technology which will destroy the market chances of IEEE 802.16e-2005 (which is being called by Intel and its camp followers mobile WiMAX), has a theoretical limit of 42 Mb/s in its current version, although most observers think it will top out at around 28.8 Mb/s. An advanced version that may double those specs is in the works. That, many feel, will be more than enough for HSPA/HSPA+ to be the dominant wireless broadband technology for the cellular industry until at least 2015

HSPA+, by the way, is also known s Evolved HSPA, HSPA Evolution, and I-HSPA or Internet HSPA. wireless broadband standard defined in 3GPP release 7.HSPA+, or whatever one calls it, is 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) Release 7. HSPA was Release 6, and LTE is Release 8.

WCDMA HSPA connections to reach 40m by 2008 !

As per Wireless Intelligence, WCDMA HSPA cellular connections are expected to reach 40 million worldwide by end of 2008. By 2010, WCDMA HSPA is expected to represent around 45% of total WCDMA cellular connections, which are also on track to exceed GSM connections by 2010 in those countries where the network has been launched.
Asia-Pacific is driving growth during the initial phase of adoption, while European operators will boost total WCDMA HSPA cellular connections from the end of 2008. WCDMA HSPA is expected to increase data traffic and non-voice revenues.

WCDMA HSPA will be commercially present in more than 60 countries by the end of next year, based on announced plans. With the aim of bringing broadband speeds to mobile networks, WCDMA HSPA is a software upgrade to existing WCDMA networks typically launched from 2003. WCDMA HSPA will go through a slow adoption phase until the end of 2008. WCDMA HSPA is expected to represent around 6% of total WCDMA connections by the end of 2007 (11 million connections).
"The fastest early growth is coming from Asia-Pacific, with operators such as KTF, Telstra and NTT DoCoMo already very aggressive in migrating their installed base to the new technology," says Gillet. At an operator group level, Vodafone Group could reach 4.5 million WCDMA HSPA cellular connections by the end of next year. T-Mobile has been focusing more on its EDGE network and is expected to be more aggressive in launching WCDMA HSPA, especially in Germany, its home market. Orange and Telefonica O2 are following the same pattern as they expand coverage in their key markets, including Eastern European countries such as Poland and Czech Republic. Finally, from 2009, WCDMA HSPA uptake in Western and Eastern European countries will trigger a fast adoption of the technology worldwide. "In 2010, worldwide WCDMA HSPA cellular connections are expected to represent around 45% of total WCDMA connections, numbering around 278 million cellular connections.

Handset launches - In 2006, operators were offering high-speed services mainly through HSDPA datacards. HSUPA datacards are expected to be introduced in the second half of 2007. HSDPA handsets will be more affordable from 2008, driving volume.
Handset pricing - As WCDMA moves towards the sub-€100 ASP segment, HSDPA benefits from time and volume advantages and is expected to hit the mid tier by the end of 2008. WCDMA HSPA handsets will hit the mass market faster than the existing WCDMA handsets.
Tariffs - Operators will differentiate by offering new services based on flat-rate tariff plans withWCDMA HSPA as one of the enablers.
Network cost of development - WCDMA HSPA is a software upgrade to the existing WCDMA network infrastructure and is therefore not particularly costly except for backhaul.
Network coverage - WCDMA HSPA will generally be implemented over the whole WCDMA network of an operator, starting with the most densely populated zones.
Technology migration - We have assumed that WCDMA to WCDMA HSPA migration will follow a similar pattern to migration from CDMA2000 1X to CDMA2000 1XEV-DO.
Exceptions - Networks in China and India have not been included in the WCDMA HSPA forecasts as operators have not yet announced any official deployment. Similarly, Russian WCDMA HSPA connections have not yet been forecasted.

Source - http://www.cellular-news.com/

Ericsson all set to dominate the wireless broadband market

Ericsson has launched close to a hundred HSPA networks across the world. HSPA has been established as the preferred technology for mobility and wireless broadband.
With some 125 HSPA enabled devices, including some 50 HSPA mobile phone models, Ericsson is today managing networks with more than 100 million subscribers.