The exponential growth of WCDMA is showing no signs of slowing down. By the year 2011, Ericsson believes that the number of subscribers on WCDMA networks could more than quadruple.

According to the on-line news source Cellular News, WCDMA grew 102 percent in 2006 and now boasts more than 100 million subscribers. Ulf Elwaldsson, head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, says 3G-enabled devices are driving this growth as they become more widely available and affordable.

Analyst firm IDC reports that, during 2006, worldwide shipments of mobile phones passed the 1 billion mark, with many of those devices capable of being connected to a third-generation network.

"It is right that terminals are driving this growth," Ewaldsson says. "Vendors are increasing their volumes of wideband phones because of dramatically decreasing production costs."

The growth of WCDMA was strongest in mature mobile markets such as the US, Europe and Japan. Ewaldsson believes that it is possible to sustain this growth over the long term because emerging markets, such as those in Southeast Asia, are also showing strong uptake of 3G services.

"WCDMA gives operators the opportunity to explore new revenue streams," Ewaldsson says. As internet access over WCDMA-enabled phones and devices continues to grow, so too will operators' sources of revenue.

Cellular News reports that annual revenues per user (ARPU) from 3G subscribers are 5-20 percent greater than for other services. Ewaldsson says the potential for WCDMA is even greater considering that there are now 100 million subscribers who also have the potential to access advanced mobile content using High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), a technology based on WCDMA.

As operator networks begin to carry a majority of data-oriented traffic, service providers will need to refine their focus. The most important factors are now capacity and coverage.

"Coverage is critical because you need to provide internet access, always and everywhere," Ewaldsson says. "Capacity is necessary in order to provide a faster response to other network and access alternatives."

It is this combination of ubiquitous coverage and high-speed capacity that will be the upper-hand for WCDMA as the competitive landscape tightens and as mobile users raise increasingly more advanced demands.