[November 09, 2009] One billion mobile broadband users by 2012 ? association [The Manila Times, Philippines] Tweet (Manila Times (Phillipines) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 9--GSM Association (GSMA), a global trade group for mobile industry, projected to grow the mobile broadband use to one billion subscribers by 2012. Jaikishan Rajaraman, senior director for services of the GSM Association, said in the next year, the price of the HSPA modules is going to drop by half from $70 to $35, which would trigger the growth of mobile broadband use. "We expect that this will help fuel the growth of HSPA subscribers to about a billion by 2012," he said in a press conference. "We are seeing the kind of growth of five million subscribers per month on HSPA right now." Rajaraman said at present, there are 1.3 billion fixed lines and 4 billion mobile connections globally, with 150 million HSPA subscribers. With that figures, he said, mobile broadband would be the new trend in the next few years. "Mobile broadband is going to be the gateway for the people to have access to Internet and information. This is available right now and it will make a difference to any kind of population. It is affordable and it will continue to be cheaper," he said. Rajaraman, however, revealed that the Philippines, compared to Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, is lagging behind in terms of mobile broadband adoption. He said he wants to talk to local mobile operators to understand the reason for this and how mobile broadband access can be improved in the country. "The Philippines is a very important country where we want to improve mobile broadband access. Indeed, the Philippines is lagging behind most of its neighbors in terms of mobile broadband adoption considering that you have 3G since 2004 or 2005," he said. "We are curious to know why that is the case and we want to understand from the operators if there is anything that we can do to improve the access," he added. Rajaraman was in Manila on November 6 to speak on mobile broadband for emerging markets during the Philippines Telecom International Summit 2009. To see more of The Manila Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.manilatimes.net. Copyright (c) 2009, The Manila Times, Philippines Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]