mobile broadband

17% of European broadband accounted for by HSPA

European carriers are top list in promoting 3G connections as primary broadband connections. Mobile-only operators such as O2 are going to increase their ARPU by becoming the key broadband suppliers. Many providers intend to use wireless for rural areas.

According to the research made by Berg Insight, such strategies are already bearing fruit. At the en sod last year, over 17% of broadband connections were represented by HSPA.

71% of is the 2009 increase in the number of HSPA subscribers who used wireless with their PCs, which is a total number of 25 m subscribers at the end of the year. By 2015 the number of PC connections is expected to rise to 81m.

Austria is the most advanced market, having a penetration rate of 15%, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and Portugal with penetration rates above 10%, while the North American market is much slower in this respect. The Netherlands, Belgium and Greece are registered with less than 3%.

This trend is expected to accelerate as 3G and then LTE will become an embedded feature of notebooks and laptops. Huawei is still the biggest supplier of dongles and embedded modules with over 50% global share and a fairly strong position in Europe. ZTE comes second with 30%.