HSPA, one of the fastest mobile technologies available on the market today, which comes as an enhancement over UMTS, is said to have seen great adoption among mobile phone carriers around the world. At the moment, there are 300 networks based on the standard available around the world, while the total number of UMTS-HSPA mobile broadband connections is expected to reach 458 million before the end of the year, a forecast by Informa Telecoms & Media shows.

“In the short period of two years since HSDPA was first launched on a wide scale basis in the U.S., the number of commercial HSPA mobile broadband networks now stands at 300 in 128 countries worldwide,” stated Chris Pearson, president of 3G Americas, the wireless industry trade association that represents GSM technologies, like LTE, and which tracks 3G commercial networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) all around the world.

The technology reportedly offers a great combination of efficiency and high-speed data, which thus enables mass market mobile broadband. The speeds registered by users at the moment rises above 1 Mbps, and networks around the world also show speeds of 4 Mbps on the downlink. HSPA also offers carriers the possibility to meet the data needs of their users, and it enjoys a wide availability around the world, including the existence of 1,658 commercial devices launched on the market.

“Latin America has been a key growth engine for mobile broadband since HSDPA was first launched at the end of 2006,” stated Erasmo Rojas, director of Latin America and the Caribbean for 3G Americas. “By the end of this year, HSPA is expected to reach 11.4 million subscribers, adding 4.5 million subscriptions between June and December 2009 alone to reach this forecasted number. Latin America is one of the fastest growing regions in the world in adopting mobile broadband technology.”

Future network enhancements are also assumed to occur, with carriers moving either towards HSPA+ or LTE. According to Informa Telecoms & Media, a number of 3.2 billion mobile broadband connections are expected by the end of 2014. At the same time, it seems that UMTS-HSPA and LTE should account for 84 percent share of market, or 2.8 billion subscriptions. As for HSPA, it is forecast to enjoy a total of 1.76 billion subscriptions by that time.

Here are some November 2009 data facts on HSPA:
- 4 billion GSM-HSPA subscriptions
- More than 700 GSM networks
- UMTS-HSPA represents 84 percent of the global mobile broadband market
- HSPA is available in 128 countries worldwide
- More than 1,658 HSPA devices launched (GSMA)
- 35 commercial HSPA+ networks in 23 countries worldwide offering 21 Mbps to 28 Mbps peak theoretical downlink speeds
- By year-end 2014, the 3GPP mobile broadband technologies (UMTS-HSPA-LTE) are forecast to represent 2.8 billion subscriptions and 84 percent share of market

More details are available here.