By Telecom Lead Team: The average
advertised maximum download speed has increased significantly over the last 3
months, due to LTE deployment and 3G upgrades to HSPA/HSPA+ technologies.
Strategy Analytics analysis shows
that the average advertised maximum download speed now stands at over 14 Mbps,
an increase of over nine percent in the past quarter.
This rapid growth comes from the recent
move to 4G or LTE technology in many countries, including Austria, Australia,
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden,
Turkey and the USA.
The number of plans with maximum
download speed advertised above 21Mbps represents over 20 percent of the total.
The number of tariffs in the fastest
download range (between 50Mbps and 100Mbps) grew 114 percent, from 22 to 47 in
just 3 months.
Based on the pace of change seen in
the past two years of tracking mobile broadband pricing, Strategy Analytics
expects the average maximum download speed to exceed 15Mbps by mid-year and 20
Mbps by the end of 2012. Average data allowance will edge upward, toward a norm
of at least 8GB.
According to GSMA, the speed of mobile broadband connection is
the lowest in India compared with China, Korea Australia and New Zealand, rest
of Asia Pacific and the Western nations.
Top telecom markets based on mobile
broadband speed
While
India and China lag well behind, with average access speeds of only 19 kbps and
50 kpbs, respectively, these speeds are projected to grow at nearly 100 percent
in both countries and cross the 1,000 kbps mark by 2015.
At
present, average connection speeds realized in Japan and South Korea are
already the highest in the world, with average speeds of 1,400 kbps in 2010,
nearly three times higher than a Western averagex.
By
2015, operators in India will have an average mobile broadband speed of 1,037
Kbps, China (1,384 Kbps), rest of Asia Asia Pacific (1,860 Kbps), Korea (4,984
Kbps), Australia and New Zealand (5,194 Kbps) and the West (5,509 Kbps).
