AT&T Leads Global HSPA Market

AT&T Inc. (T - Analyst Report) has reportedly emerged as the leading player in the global HSPA (high-speed packet access) market in terms of total subscriber connections. According to a recent report by the GSM Association, the second-largest US carrier has outpaced industry leaders such as NTT DoCoMo (DCM - Analyst Report), Vodafone (VOD - Analyst Report), Telefonica (TEF - Analyst Report) and SK Telecom (SKM - Analyst Report) in terms of HSPA penetration.

HSPA is a mobile telephony standard widely used in 3G wireless networks to boost end-user experience by offering peak download speed of up to 14 megabits per second. According to the industry estimate, the global HSPA customer base is approaching the 150 million mark with around 230 operators having already deployed HSPA services and amassed 131 million subscribers (based on recent statistics).

AT&T currently has 28.6 million HSPA customer connections, which equates to 21% share of the worldwide HSPA subscription. This is significantly higher, compared to SK Telecom’s customer base of 12.4 million, NTT DoCoMo’s 5.1 million, Telefonica O2’s 2.3 million and Vodafone UK’s 2.1 million.

Since launching its wireless services on HSPA in 2005, AT&T has been able to outpace its Asian and European peers in terms of market penetration. Currently, almost 100% of the company’s 3G customers are on the HSPA platform. This is compared to the other major players in the HSPA market such as NTT DoCoMo, which currently has most of its 3G customers on the W-CDMA platform, a 3G wireless technology having slower network speeds than HSPA.

AT&T is consistently upgrading its 3G wireless network by incorporating emerging HSPA technologies. The company is currently in the process of deploying HSPA Release 7, an upgrade to HSPA with peak speed exceeding 20 megabits per second. We view these initiatives as positives, as increased throughput achieved through these upgrades will boost opportunities in the mobile data market, thereby driving wireless revenue growth.

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