We all know that in a few years, Long Term Evolution (LTE), the 4G wireless broadband technology being embraced by mobile carriers across the world, is going to rule the airwaves, becoming an important way for us to connect to the Internet. But for now, it seems HSPA, aka High Speed Packet Access, the 3G wireless broadband technology, rules the planet. HSPA is a common term used to embrace all acronyms for HSDPA and HSUPA as well as HSPA+.

Some estimate that there will be a whopping 250 million wireless broadband subscribers by the end of 2009. And an overwhelming majority of them will be using HSPA-based wireless broadband. According to the GSM Association (GSMA) there will be 150 million HSPA connections worldwide by the end of the summer. There are 300 HSPA networks in 127 countries and about 1,500 HSPA devices, GSMA estimates. The data collected by the trade group shows: Continue »

UPDATED: Ever since I broke up with my iPhone, not a day passes without me hearing from someone who shares the same sentiments about AT&T’s network. AT&T, of course, has done little more than hem and haw about the problem, which is much more widespread than we think.

This week at our Green:Net conference, a number of people came up to me to share their frustration with the iPhone/AT&T 3G network; most said they switch to the slower EDGE and/or Wi-Fi in order to use their iPhone. So in an attempt to gauge the extent of the problem, we have created a poll/survey. Update: To be clear, we have issued this in an effort to understand the extent/nature of the problems that folks are having with the AT&T iPhone. If you are happy with it, please fill out only the questions that reflect that and skip the ones that don’t apply to you. We will present the results in context.

Poll is now closed.

Earlier this week, comScore reported that daily web usage on mobile devices had doubled in the last 12 months, with nearly 22.4 million U.S. mobile users using their devices to go on the web.

Today, another research firm, Infonetics Research reported that despite the global economic downturn, the demand for mobile broadband is only going increase. They expect that there will be more than 1 billion mobile broadband users by 2013 vs. 210.5 million at the end of 2008. These are connections that use 3G technologies such as W-CDMA, HSPA, CDMA 2000 and EVDO. The sales of mobile broadband PC cards (and embedded 3G modules) were around $4.1 billion in 2008 and show no signs of slowing down. Continue »

Asia-Pac region would lead the world with 564 million 3G subscriptions by 2013 versus 158.4 million in 2008, according to research from Frost & Sullivan. Doh! With countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China and India should we be surprised? They think 37 million people will get their broadband using dongles and data cards by 2013 and will bring in revenues of $7.8 billion versus $1.3 billion in revenues from 5.2 million external devices. No wonder Chinese vendors like ZTE and Huawei are busy making these devices.

In anticipation of the growing footprint of its WiMAX (4G) service, the beleaguered mobile operator Sprint launched a 3G/4G dual-mode device, likely to go on sale on Dec. 21. The Sprint 3G/4G USB Modem U300, made by Franklin Wireless will cost $150 and will work with Sprint’s EVDO network and on Sprint’s Baltimore WiMAX network. The service will launch in Portland very soon. Other cities are likely to follow next year as Clearwire (the combo company that includes Clearwire & Sprint’s 4G efforts and has liberal funding from others) will roll out its Clear service next year. Sprint claims that folks can get average downlink speeds of 2-4 Mbps within Baltimore 4G service areas and 600 Kbps – 1.4 Mbps on their EVDO network.

Bottomline: Just because the device is available doesn’t mean you need to buy it. As Stacey pointed out earlier that the credit crunch can slow down the Clear rollout and the device well might not be useful in many places. You are better off going for a cheaper 3G-only card for now.