Nine African countries now have commercial HSDPA mobile broadband offerings, with deployment under way in another two countries.
This is according to statistics released yesterday by the UK-based Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) in its "GMS/3G Market/Technology Update".
The GSA says there are now 207 commercial high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) networks in 89 countries worldwide. A year ago, there were 126 commercial HSDPA networks in 63 countries.
HSDPA is a third-generation mobile telephony communications protocol. "HSDPA delivers advanced mobile multimedia services with typical user data throughputs of 0.8Mbps-3.0Mbps, according to individual network and user device capabilities," the GSA explains.
The group says network speeds are increasing, with most networks supporting 3.6Mbps peak downlink or higher, and many are evolving to 14.4Mbps.
"Uplink speeds are also increasing, with 68 operators committed to HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access), and 51 HSUPA networks launched in 35 countries," it says.
The GSA also notes that most high-speed packet access operators combine mobile broadband services delivery with GSM/EDGE for service continuity and the best user experience.
"GSA estimates that there are over 1.46 billion GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA and HSPA subscribers in commercial HSPA-enabled networks."
The report lists 14 commercial HSDPA networks in nine countries in Africa. These are: Angola (Unitel - peak rate 1.8Mbps); Egypt (Etisalat Misr - 3.6Mbps, Vodafone - 7.2Mbps); Kenya (Safricom - 3.6Mbps); Morocco (M'editel - 3.6Mbps, Maroc Telecom - 3.6Mbps); Namibia (MTC - 1.8Mbps, Cell One - 1.8Mbps); Nigeria (MTN Nigeria - 3.6Mbps, Globacom - 3.6Mbps); SA (MTN - 3.6Mbps with 7.2Mbps on some sites, Vodacom - 3.6Mbps, deploying 7.2Mbps); Tanzania (Vodacom - 1.8Mbps); and Uganda (UTL - 1.8Mbps).
The report points out that Libyana Mobile in Libya is deploying in 14 cities for the launch of a 3.6Mbps service and mcel is deploying a service in Mozambique.
Europe leads the pack worldwide with 110 HSDPA operators and 38 HSUPA operators in 45 countries, followed by Asia-Pacific (44 HSDPA operators and seven HSUPA operators in 20 countries).
The Americas-Caribbean region counts 27 HSDPA and two HSUPA operators in 15 countries, and the Middle East and Africa count 26 HSDPA and four HSUPA operators in 19 countries.
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