Set 3.5G free, says analyst

Mobile operators should look at offering single-fee, unlimited data access plans to their HSDPA services if they want to see the technology take off as broadband has, according to an analyst.

Devine Kofiloto, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said pricing strategies will determine the uptake of HSDPA services.

Kofiloto noted that mobile operators today capitalise on HSDPA's mobility benefits over fixed DSL (digital subscriber line) and wi-fi, to justify the premium pricing of high-speed downlink packet access services.

He said in a statement on Wednesday: "In the voice world, the so-called 'mobile premium' has for years allowed mobile operators to get away with vastly higher tariffs than those charged by their fixed-line counterparts."

High-speed downlink packet access, the touted successor of today's 3G mobile networks, is a beefed up version of the Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) technology, which improves the downlink speed and is capable of supporting data connection of up to 1.4Mbps.

According to Informa, the average price of an operator's HSDPA data bundle is between €50 and €70 ($60 to $84) per month, offering data limits ranging from 1GB to 2GB.

However, if mobile operators hope to achieve the data traffic volumes currently enjoyed by fixed broadband service providers, they must recognise the factors that propelled such growth, Kofiloto said.

One driving factor is the availability of single-fee, unlimited data access plans, which mobile operators are still reluctant to offer, he said. "Looking at the fixed [data services] world, broadband uptake only truly took off after the introduction of flat-rate tariffs and the settling of average monthly fees at around €25," he noted, citing Informa's research on the European market.

As of 7 March this year, only six HSDPA networks support commercially available services, including Cingular Wireless in the US and O2 on the Isle of Man. In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia, China, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are among the countries that plan to roll out HSDPA networks, or are in the midst of doing so.

Gartner predicts that sales of HSDPA handsets will reach 6.3 million this year and will jump to 102 million by 2009.

Aaron Tan writes for ZDNet Asia