Approaching 285 Million 3G Users

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 11 September 2006

ABI Research has calculated that by the end of 2006 there will be 285 million 3G subscriptions worldwide, placing the high-speed voice and data technology at the forefront of mobile growth. The research company points out that it took some time for 3G to get going but these latest numbers indicate that "3G has finally gained credibility". ABI Research's Asia-Pacific director, Jake Saunders says that, "Operators' overall capital expenditure will grow for the fourth year to reach $126.4 billion, and annual 3G-related handset shipments should pull past 300 million." W-CDMA is starting to pull its weight in the 3G stakes, and is expected to overhaul CDMA2000 by about 2012, but CDMA2000 is certainly not out for the count: it has proved to be an efficient solution, says ABI. Nevertheless, W-CDMA will continue to keep the pressure on, and as end-users replace their GSM handsets, many will default to purchasing a W-CDMA handset, providing manufacturers with increasing economies of scale. Another horse in the race, TD-SCDMA may be taking time to reach commercial reality in China, but it is already clear that Chinese infrastructure vendors, such as Datang Mobile, are re-engineering their solutions to offer a hybrid TD-SCDMA/HSDPA solution that makes the most of both technologies, says the researcher. It also cautions not to underestimate WiMAX as a late runner in the event. The dominance of each of these access technologies helps to dictate the overall cost of service delivery and the functionality of the value-added services that operators can offer. And of course, the relative volumes each can muster determines which camps of vendors (and their upstream and downstream component suppliers) will receive the lion's share of the equipment-spending pie. Intangible factors such as legacy equipment integration, access to towers, backhaul infrastructure, handset lineups, and vendor financing also enter the equation, explains ABI. "The exciting prospect is that national markets could be opening up to alternative access technologies more than ever before," says Saunders. "If the vendors of the new alternative 3G+ solutions can demonstrate that they can operate alongside existing 3G and even 2G infrastructures, the opportunities for new entrants (or even a few industry veterans such as Qualcomm and Lucent) could suddenly look a lot brighter." Related news items Palm To Update Treo 750 OS -27/03/2007 Aepona Announces Cellular to WiFi Roaming Solution based on VCC Specifications -13/02/2007 Streamezzo to Present End-to-End Rich Media Solutions For Mobile Devices at 3GSM -13/02/2007 IP Unity Glenayre promotes interoperability and innovation with expanded partner program -13/02/2007 FTS Launches Leap(tm) BCE Mobile Edition Enabling Real-Time Service Interaction with Customers -13/02/2007 Newer news items Mile High 3G Gaining Momentum -18/09/2006 Weekly Broadband Rental For Irregular Travellers -18/09/2006 Data-Linc Appoints Local Distie -14/09/2006 Cost Effective SSL VPN -12/09/2006 Wireless broadband Recovers In Bush -10/09/2006 Older news items BigAir Goes Off-Peak With iBurst -06/09/2006 Low-Cost Ryanair To Allow In-Flight Mobiles -03/09/2006 Nokia, SingTel To Launch Dual-Mode Telephony -03/09/2006 With Revenue Up 126% - It's A Wizz -28/08/2006 Feds Fund Satellite Broadband For Remote Australia -26/08/2006 Tag This Now: