3G mobiles will hit 28Mbit/s data rates next year
Data rates of 28Mbit/s could be available on 3G mobile phones as early as next year if the industry adopts a plan to upgrade existing HSDPA and HSUPA technology. The high speed technology known as HSPA+ will be introduced before next generation 3G LTE technology, which is due in 2010.
?The next evolution is HSPA+ which increases data to 28Mbit/s,? Luis Pineda, senior v-p marketing and product management at Qualcomm, told Electronics Weekly. ?There are capacity benefits for the operator and it?s a simple channel card upgrade.? HSPA+ is part of the 3GPP Release 7 standard and Pineda said the timeframe for services is 2008 and there is already a lot of support for the technology from carriers, including Cingular in the US.
Freescale Semiconductor is looking at HSPA+, but Mike Philips, director of strategic marketing at Freescale, believes its prospects are uncertain.L33tdawg: I think it'll be 2010 before the telco's here in Malaysia roll out even decent first-gen (1.8Mbps) HSDPA; as it stands we have providers touting their service when it isn't really ready for mass deployment.
