Informa Telecoms & Media predicts a staggering uptake of HSPA connections over the next 18 months. The analyst firm states that there were 7.25 million HSPA subs at the end of Q107 and that this figure will grow to over 50 million by the end of 2008.

Strong growth in North America as well as in the advanced Asia-Pacific countries of Japan and Korea has helped to accelerate the take-up of HSPA to reach 7.25 million subscribers on a global basis by the end of March 2007, according to data from Informa Telecoms & Media’s World Cellular Information Service.

The take-up of HSPA is therefore proceeding at a faster rate than initial WCDMA growth thanks to growing popularity of HSPA-enabled data cards, USB modems and the availability of several attractive consumer devices such as the Nokia N95.

Whereas it took almost three years before WCDMA subscribers exceeded the seven million mark, HSPA subscribers have reached this figure within the space of just 15 months since the launch of the first HSPA networks in December 2005.

“HSPA is therefore well on track to surpass the 20 million mark on a global basis by the end of 2007 as forecasted in Informa’s Future Mobile Broadband report. This figure is set to more than double next year to reach 56.8 million by the end of 2008. By this time HSPA will account for around 20.5 per cent of total global WCDMA subscribers, up from 6.2 per cent at the end of 1Q07,” Thomas Wehmeier Senior Research Analyst, Global Markets Portfolio, Informa Telecoms & Media told telecoms.com.