ITProPortal.Com comes with its predictions for 2012 about mobile phones and related devices. This week they will publish the arrival of new mobile phones and related mobile devices which are expected to capture the market and going to be the talk of the town during 2012.

Earlier, they have predicted the future of NFC and how it is going to become more prevalent in phones in 2012.The BlackBerry platform, two Windows phone 7 variations and the new version of the Android OS are all on their list.

The year 2011 witnessed the upgrading of mobile broadband by mobile phone networks in order to compete with the mobile phones supporting the HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access) standard. One of the first mass market phones to arrive with the standard built-in was Samsung Galaxy SII flagship handset. Last year itself, Three UK, one of the mobile phone networks in the UK, started to upgrade their network to HSPA+ with an aim to upgrade at least 80% of their network by December. This mobile broadband specification is expected to deliver web surfing speeds of 21 Mbps whereas at present the customers are experiencing only 10 Mbps. Three UK produced a dongle supporting HSPA+ and a standalone MIFI device that can access HSPA+.

It is expected that in 2012, more mobile phone network will adopt HSPA+. It is also predicted that manufacturers of mobile phones and tablets will be including HSPA+ by default just like 3G has become very common in mobile devices.

In 2011, 4G trials were started by O2 and Everything Everywhere in the UK to test out the new mobile broadband standard. In early March 2011, O2 started trials in Berkshire and it was found that the LTE (long term evolution) capability could offer up to 100 Mbps. Now O2 is engaged in a pilot scheme with actual customers in London.

To conduct 4 G LTE trials, Everything Everywhere along with BT selected a town in Cornwall with 200 residents. This town was selected because the providers wanted to know whether mobile broadband standard could benefit rural areas. They knew that rollout of fixed line broadband is not possible in these areas. If the trial becomes a success, then it would help the rural areas to have access to superfast broadband. Usually superfast internet access was available only in IT towns.

It has been predicted that the year 2012 will see LTE getting more and more prominence in the UK. The progress of 4G trials and the auctioning of 4G spectrum will hit the headlines. It also says that Ofcom, the communications regulatory body will conduct auction of 4 G spectrum this year. It also expressed its doubt about the appearance of handsets with LTE 4G standard in the UK in the year 2012 though much is being spoken about this feature by mobile phone manufacturers.