Europe France : Option and Nortel have completed the industry’s first successful demonstration of live HSDPA data card calls reaching a wireless transmission rate of 3.6Mbps – faster than the majority of current broadband connections. The test calls were carried out on commercial HSDPA network equipment at Nortel’s research campus in Châteaufort, France.

The series of calls are the first data card calls to demonstrate downlink speed of 3.6 Mbps, at HSDPA category 6 using 16 QAM modulations. A laptop fitted with an Option 3.6 HSDPA data card based on QUALCOMM core MSM 6280 technology and commercial HSDPA network equipment from Nortel were used to achieve the download speeds.

The calls included successful ‘real-world’ tests with a laptop placed in a moving vehicle to illustrate the suitability of mobile wireless broadband for high quality, live TV, High Definition video on demand, MP3 download as well as new applications for the mobile workforce.

“The results of these data card trials mark a world first for Option and demonstrate our leadership position in the development and realization of mobile broadband wireless data solutions,” Jan Callewaert, chief executive officer, Option. “Achieving this world first underscores the strong relationships that we have with leading chipset manufacturers and infrastructure providers -- Qualcomm and Nortel,-- and reinforces our continued commitment to bring the most advanced 3G/HSDPA technology solutions to market.”

“Nortel is committed to the thorough testing and demonstration of viable HSDPA end-user equipment with vendors such as Option to help provide a faster time to market of high speed broadband wireless services,” said Jean-Luc Jezouin, vice-president, GSM/UMTS products, Nortel.

“Broadband technologies like HSDPA can only help operators realize the value of their existing Nortel UMTS infrastructure investments if viable end user equipment is available in the market.”
2 Option announced its first HSDPA demonstrations early this year at CeBIT 2005 (Hanover, March 2005) and CTIA Wireless (New-Orleans, March 2005) tradeshows. In September 2005 the company announced its worldwide unique HSDPA-Ready concept, which means that whenever the network operator decides to launch HSDPA services in its territory, a simple firmware upgrade, available via the operator’s website, is sufficient to release the power of HSDPA on the data card. Option’s

GlobeTrotter 3G/EDGE and the GlobeTrotter FUSION+, both “HSDPA-Ready”, are currently shipped in volumes to network operators. Nortel achieved the industry's first HSDPA mobile call in January 2005. Nortel completed the first live test calls using a commercial handset solution for HSDPA in March 2005. In June 2005, Nortel became the first wireless network supplier to complete the TL9000 registration standard for Quality Management System Requirements and Measurements across its HSDPA, UMTS and GSM wireless infrastructure solutions.

Nortel has worked with a number of wireless operators on HSDPA trials and deployments in 2005, including Edge wireless in the US, SKT and KTF in Korea, SOFTBANK Group's BB Mobile in Japan, O2, Orange (at 3GSM World Congress 2005 in Cannes, France), Vodafone (at CeBIT 2005 in Hanover, Germany), Partner Communications in Israel, and Mobilkom Austria. HSDPA categories for end-user equipment are defined by the HSDPA 3GPPspecification.