visiongain intelligence: HSDPA operators must give better thought to applications

visiongain intelligence offers a new report that claims "with the arrival of the first live HSDPA networks and services, the operator community needs to understand exactly what it hopes to achieve with the technology and how to go about doing so."

According to visiongain, "HSDPA is now beginning to make market inroads worldwide, with 29 commercial launches as of end-May 2006, and at least a further 32 live networks expected by the end of 2006."

visiongain warned that "while HSDPA upgrades are a logical course of action for most operators, [they] should still carefully evaluate their strategies with this technology and recognise its limitations – HSDPA does not come without costs or risks."

Goran Nastic at visiongain said, "For most operators, HSDPA is relatively cheap and easy to deploy compared to W-CDMA. And operators are hugely enthusiastic that HSDPA will stimulate data ARPU. However, a faster data rate will not in itself enhance the user experience and stimulate mobile data usage."

Nastic added, "Most operators across Western Europe report that only 10% of users with Web-enabled devices are active and regular users. This has little to do with a plain bandwidth issue. HSDPA is not the answer but it is a step in the right direction.”