HSPA gaining fast adoption for broadband connectivity

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 24 September 2009, 18:41 IST
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Bangalore: A new study by GSMA states that the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) Mobile Broadband technology is growing in popularity among global IT decision makers. Around 1,000 enterprises across the U.S, Europe and Asia Pacific participated in the survey, which stated that the HSPA Mobile Broadband technology is gaining grounds over Wi-Fi in many organizations. Around 36 percent of IT managers, directors and CIOs worldwide currently deploy HSPA as their principle means of employee mobile broadband access. As worldwide enterprise mobile technology budgets are expected to grow almost double over the next 12 months, supporting employee mobility and driving employee productivity will be the top priorities for senior IT staff. HSPA Mobile Broadband looks set to benefit strongly from this, as 24 percent of global enterprises expects that the technology will become the industry standard over the next five years. On an average, 12.3 percent of global workforces (per business) have access to mobile broadband. This figure is set to increase by 25 percent over the next 12 months, introducing millions of new users as organizations look to exploit the enhanced flexibility, faster connections and productivity gains driven by mobile broadband connectivity. "The findings provide an extremely encouraging global outlook for HSPA Mobile Broadband technology penetration within enterprises. The results clearly demonstrate that enterprises are keen to innovate and have recognized the freedom and flexibility that HSPA Mobile Broadband delivers," said Michael O'Hara, CMO, GSMA. More than 70 percent of the enterprises provide laptops to employees. The employees are also provided Virtual Private Network (VPN) access and various other remote access technologies. With mobility becoming one of the most important technological considerations, the provision of desktops is on a decline. Around 59 percent of global organizations have provided wireless internet to its employees. While the outlook for enterprise mobile broadband technology globally looks extremely positive, the survey also revealed that 60 percent of company directors, 62 percent managers and 39 percent company sales representatives are provided mobile broadband devices. "Global enterprises clearly understand the importance of mobility and the additional freedom and flexibility that HSPA Mobile Broadband offers. As the global HSPA ecosystem continues to grow at unprecedented levels, enhanced economies of scale will make HSPA even more accessible, both from a price and coverage perspective. This will lead to the technology becoming more widely deployed within enterprises, to employees at a variety of different levels," said O'Hara.