HSPA accounted for 11.6 percent of PC broadband connections in Europe at the end of last year, according to Berg Insight—that includes “active, data-only subscriptions involving USB dongles and embedded broadband” and excludes connections via mobile phones, notes ZDNet UK. The number of people who connect to the internet via HSPA/LTE on their PCs in Europe group by 74 percent year-on-year to 14.6 million, and is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent over the next five years to hit 70 million in 2014. The sudden spike last year is attributed to carriers cutting the price of the mobile broadband connections, which are now far cheaper than they are in North America.

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In North America only 4.5 percent of broadband connections are over mobile broadband technologies, but the market is expected to grow 43 percent each year to hit 35 million subscribers by the end of 2014. Berg Insight predicts that broadband service providers will have to offer their subscribers multiple access methods, and that “LTE will prevail as the main wireless technology also in North America. The idea to construct another nationwide network in the US based on any alternative technology does not seem credible in the current financial climate”. Obviously, Clearwire disagrees.

Photo Credit: Flickr/rozic