IMS

Right now, we are witnessing the biggest upswing in take-up of 3G services since their introduction. New levels of performance, enabled by High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and innovative pricing models from mobile operators that make mobile broadband an attractive complement – or alternative – to fixed broadband services.

More people are coming to appreciate the convenience of mobile broadband over 3G networks. There is no time-consuming setup or payment process when users want to connect over a wireless connection – and they can move around without losing the connection. With HSPA networks already offering 3.6Mbit/s or 7.2Mbit/s in the downlink, secure and convenient broadband is available everywhere there is coverage.

Experience from HSPA rollouts proves that when operators provide quality coverage, services and devices, mobile broadband takes off rapidly. For one operator that introduced HSPA in 2006, HSPA traffic grew to 40 percent of all packet data traffic in a mere six months. Another HSPA operator realized data traffic growth of 400 percent just 10 weeks after it introduced flat-rate pricing for its HSPA data cards.

HSPA performance continues to improve and soon will be able to deliver 42Mbit/s in the downlink. The next important technology evolution in mobile networks, Long Term Evolution (LTE) will provide peak rates above 100Mbit/s and higher in the downlink when it becomes available commercially in 2009.

The UMTS/WCDMA 3G standard has surpassed 100 million subscribers. Some 117 operators in 58 countries have launched HSPA services, and HSPA-enabled devices such as laptops, PC cards and PDAs are already widely available. HSPA also is beginning to appear in such devices as music players, game consoles and cameras.

Ericsson expects 1.8 billion broadband subscribers by 2112; about two-thirds of these will be mobile subscribers, which will increase mobile broadband traffic by 3000 percent.