Trade association 3G Americas, announced that in December
2008 with 4 billion connections to mobile devices worldwide.
The estimate by Informa Telecoms & Media represents 60% of the entire
global population today. In some countries, millions of people are now
experiencing connectivity to the world for the first time through
wireless and changing their economic, social and political fortunes
forever.
The Latin America and Caribbean region continues to show steady
consumer growth with 16% year-on-year growth as subscription numbers
are expected to reach in excess of 440 million, equating to 76%
penetration.
The market in the region to have shown the
greatest number of net additions in the year was unsurprisingly Brazil
[19 million]. In terms of annual growth, Peru has been
a particularly fast growing market with 4.6 million net additions,
representing annual subscription growth of 33%.
As many emerging markets are achieving a new level of communication,
wireless technology continues its rapid advancement into next
generation mobile networks. Currently, more than 100 mobile operators
worldwide, including most industry leaders, have announced expectations
to migrate
networks to LTE from 2010 and beyond. LTE is the next evolution of
mobile broadband technology that utilizes OFDM-based technology and a
flat-IP core network allowing an enhanced Internet experience on mobile
devices.
The number of wireless users on 3G services continues to rise.
Informa estimates that there are nearly 415 million 3G subscriptions to
date, with 77% share of the 3G market on UMTS/HSPA networks or 320
million connections, and the remaining 95 million on CDMA EV-DO. The
number of commercial UMTS/HSPA networks has risen to 258 in more than 100 countries, including41 networks in 20 countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.
"HSPA and HSPA+ will compete with any and all mobile wireless
technologies available today and in the near future," concluded
Pearson. "In fact, recent commercial launches of HSPA+, such as that of
Telstra in Australia, are reporting peak theoretical downlink speeds of
21.6 Mbps. 3G is more than capable of delivering the bandwidth
customers need today, and the emerging LTE technology provides us with
a clear evolution path for the future."
3G Americas is endorsing the two-day conference by ATIS (Alliance
for Telecommunications