Europe
UK : 3, the mobile media company, announced a successful trial of
High Speed Downlink Packet Access ("HSDPA") on its 3G network
in the UK.
HSDPA significantly improves the data speeds that can be delivered
over a mobile data network. It is just the first of a number of technological
advances that are within the 3G standard which can be rolled out incrementally
over 3's existing 3G network. HSDPA will give customers a greater
quality and range of communication, and information services. As well
as delivering much higher data speeds, HSDPA also makes more efficient
use of radio spectrum, delivering capacity more cost effectively.
The trial, which has been running for the last four months, has already
delivered speeds of up to 1.4 million bits per second, over three
times faster than current 3G speeds and more than forty times faster
than GPRS.
The first voice and data downloads on HSDPA were performed over 3’s
network in Maidenhead. The trial, conducted on Nokia and NEC infrastructure,
will be extended to selected urban areas in May and 3 will implement
HSDPA in its commercial network in the second half of 2006.
HSDPA works by using a more advanced radio modulation scheme and this,
combined with a more efficient radio network design, delivers the
higher data rates.
David Cooper, Chief Technical Officer 3 UK said: ”3 has led
the development of 3G in the UK and with this successful trial we
are leading the development of HSDPA. HSDPA will bring a range of
benefits to our customers including faster download speeds, higher
quality content and easy transfer of larger files. HSDPA will allow
us to continue offering our customers the best new services first,
over the largest and most advanced 3G network in the UK. Our objective
for 2006 and beyond is to continue to have the best 3G network in
the UK, HSDPA is the next step.”
3 operates the first 3G network launched in the UK, with over 88%
population coverage. 3 won ‘Best 3G network’ at the Mobile
Choice Awards.
