This means that three quarters of 105 operators who have commercially launched 3G/WCDMA services have committed to the HSDPA evolution in their networks, the survey says.

HSDPA is claimed to be market reality today. The survey confirms that 14 networks have commercially launched HSDPA services in Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Isle of Man (UK), Israel, Kuwait, Madeira, Portugal, SA, and the USA.

The path to the mobile broadband, which began with GSM/EDGE and WCDMA, is said to have moved to a new baseline with High Speed Packet Access, starting with HSDPA, which is claimed to be delivering typical user data speeds of 1 - 3Mbps. Most WCDMA networks are expected to have activated the HSDPA upgrade by end 2006.

GSA earlier confirmed a rapidly expanding range and availability of HSDPA-capable user devices (PC data cards, phones, and embedded laptop modules) with 25 products supporting HSDPA out of a total of 315 WCDMA devices launched in the market.

The HSDPA survey details are included in GSA's 3G/GSM Market Update, which additionally confirms:

* 1,79bn GSM subscribers at March 31 - GSM has a 78,4% share of the world's cellular market;

* The global mobile market expanded by 476m subscribers in the 12 months to 31 March 2006. GSM says that it captured 424m of this growth, i.e. 89%;

* GSM outsold its nearest competitor, cdma, by 7,7 times globally in 2005;

* In China in the year to March 31, GSM added over one million new subscribers per week, growing 11 times faster than cdma;

* GSM annual growth hit more than 90% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and over 60% in both the Middle East and Africa regions. Africa is adding one million new GSM subscribers each month. Growth in Eastern Europe was near 50%;

* The number of WCDMA subscribers passed 55m in March, representing 140% yearly growth and over three million monthly additions in the last six months;

* WCDMA gained one in three new mobile connections in Western Europe in Q1 06;

* Two-thirds of the global total of GPRS live networks have committed to the EDGE upgrade;

* There are 139 commercial GSM/EDGE networks in 78 countries, out of a total of 192 EDGE deployments in 102 countries. The regional breakdown of commercial EDGE networks is 59 in Europe, 45 in the Americas and Caribbean, 21 in Asia, and 14 in Africa and the Middle East;

* 67 operators are deploying combined EDGE-WCDMA networks, of which 36 are in commercial service;

* 212 EDGE devices are launched in the market, including 34 devices supporting both EDGE and WCDMA and 10 devices supporting EDGE and WCDMA-HSDPA.