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By Dr. Ken Figueredo

Considerable strides have taken place in the mobile communications sector since the early days of bulky handsets and premium-priced voice services. The technology platform has evolved over the past few decades and this has brought mobile voice and basic messaging services to the realm of the mass market. At present, the industry as a whole is in the process of making a comprehensive transition from 2G to 3G, giving rise to the prospect of new classes of mass market data services in addition to voice.

Put simply, HSDPA is the mobile broadband counterpart to ADSL services in the fixed network; in both cases, broadband throughput rates are asymmetric with the 'D' in HSDPA signifying higher bandwidth in the downlink path from the network to the user's device.

HSDPA is an important industry-wide development that will affect end-users, operators and equipment vendors (both at the network and handset levels) profoundly. It will also encourage new players to enter the market for special purpose devices and, in time, for value-added applications and services. The issues of immediate significance with HSDPA are as follows:

• HSDPA is not an isolated new development but a technology that represents a natural evolution path for GSM/WCDMA operators. 
• Consumer and enterprise users want mobile broadband services and have demonstrated a willingness to pay a premium for these services. 
• Within a given market, HSDPA adoption alters the competitive landscape and the nature of competition amongst fixed and mobile operators. 
• Commitments on the part of the mobile network operator (MNO) community indicate that HSDPA is gaining critical mass; this is also a view that is supported by the growing range of high-performance devices. 
• The full performance envelope of the HSDPA standard is constantly being explored and vendors are showcasing trials and equipment that seek to reach HSDPA's operating limit of 14.4Mb/s.

HSDPA is a Natural Technical Evolution for GSM/WCDMA Operators

As the take-up of mobile data services took hold and the market (both operators and users) sensed the potential of mobile broadband services, GSM operators pushed forward with their 3G plans, most recently with the Release 5 flavor of the standard. HSDPA is a natural technological extension of WCDMA and builds on this migration process; it is a part of a family of enhancements to what is referred to as evolved 3G Release 6 of the standard.

Fig.1 GSM/WCDMA operator migration road-map

From a practical standpoint, the key functional distinction associated with HSDPA is the use of a distributed architecture with a greater level of network intelligence being deployed towards the edge of the network. Specifically, key scheduling and control processes are handled at the base station as opposed to the radio network controller. The performance impact of this change is to:

• Improve spectral efficiency: Higher numbers of simultaneous users can be supported within a given cell site. 
• Increase capacity: The five-fold increase in downlink performance relative to WCDMA allows end users to experience broadband that is comparable to fixed network infrastructure. 
• Reduce latency: The reduction in round trip time between the network and user terminal allows time-sensitive applications to be deployed (VoIP, gaming, application synchronization etc.)

Finally, based on reports from Cingular in the USA, a fully loaded HSDPA network is projected to deliver operating cost savings of 45-70%.


Users are Exhibiting Demand for Mobile Broadband Services

User surveys, similar that carried out by Pyramid in the UK and BRIC countries, mirror the demand for new data services.

The mass market is not yet evolved enough to support many of these services and so the early stages of mobile broadband are characterized by data access solutions.

It is instructive to note, in this regard, that users are willing to pay a mobility premium for broadband access.

Fig.2 Mobile-data interest preferences (UK audience)

Source: Pyramid Research – Mobile Data Usage Survey for UK and BRIC Countries (2005)

HSDPA is Altering the Competitive Landscape

As high-speed networks are deployed there is a shift in the competitive landscape; as soon as one operator commits to a launch it is difficult for other players to remain on the sideline. The case of Austria is symptomatic of other West European markets. Of the five players in this market, one has launched HSDPA, two others are in the process of deployment and two others have announced HSDPA plans. The strategic rational of the lead mover, Mobilkom, is to protect its customer base, two thirds of which is in the enterprise segment and an obvious segment that would value mobile broadband access.

The US market is arguably further developed because of the early entrance of Verizon (using the CDMA EVDO standard). The reaction of competitors has been swift as illustrated below.

Fig.3 Competitor responses to the early availability of mobile broadband

Source: Operator web sites, Pyramid Research, (2006)

HSDPA is Gaining Critical Mass

At the end of 2005, some 100 WCDMA networks had been deployed or were in the process of being deployed. According to statistics from 3G Americas, the operators responsible for two-thirds of these networks had announced some form of plans for HSDPA adoption and deployment.

These plans are not isolated cases but part of a pattern that includes commitments by many of the large multi-country operators including Vodafone (10 HSDPA announcements), T-Mobile (7) and H3G (5).

There is a similar pace of development on the user device front with growing numbers of devices, initially focused on PC data cards and integrated laptops.


There is Further Performance Upside to be Gained from HSDPA

Operational HSDPA networks are delivering peak downlink performance levels of 1.8Mb/s. That being noted, handsets with 3.6Mb/s capability and the potential to reach 7.2Mb/s are already available: Samsung has demonstrated 3.6 Mb/s handsets; Qualcomm chip-sets can deliver 3.6Mb/s with the ability to support 7.2Mb/s; and, 14.4Mb/s has been achieved with commercial equipment in a test set-up.


The Imminent Arrival of High-Speed Mobile Broadband

In conclusion the pace of market developments, particularly in the form of end-user demand and the competitive dynamics from gaining first-mover advantage, mean that HSDPA is set to achieve significant levels of deployment. A broad community of operators, equipment and handset vendors in the infrastructure value chain are already launching products and services for end users and this trend will continue as new and higher performing devices are launched. The era of high performance, mobile broadband is firmly on the industry's agenda.