Europe UK : World-leading HSDPA technology from Ericsson is powering Vodafone's new mobile broadband services in the UK.

Under the agreement Ericsson has delivered equipment and services to upgrade Vodafone's 3G network with full HSDPA functionality so that the operator can offer its 3G broadband (HSDPA) service to customers.

3G broadband from Vodafone is available in major UK urban areas, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Reading, Sheffield, Southampton, St Albans, Swindon, Thatcham, The Potteries, and Tyneside.

HSDPA enables Vodafone UK to introduce its customers to a new generation of mobile services; with theoretical download speeds up to four times faster than 3G at 1.8Mbps. Users can expect to experience speeds of around 1.4 Mbps. This advance means that workers can now access more powerful applications and use a number of applications concurrently while working away from the office. Users will also experience faster file download and transfer speeds.

Jacqueline Hey ( inset above ), managing director of Ericsson UK, says: "We are proud to power Vodafone's mobile broadband launch, bringing this key technology to Vodafone's UK customers at a very early stage. We look forward to further collaborative projects with Vodafone as it brings further advanced mobile services to its customers." The new service introduction follows the joint live trial of the HSDPA network earlier this year.

Paul Wybrow ( left ) , chief technology officer for Vodafone UK, said: "This is another significant step in our long-standing partnership with Ericsson. We understand that more and more of our customers need to be able to work away from the office and access critical applications and download and transfer heavy files as they would in the office. This improved 3G technology presents our customers with a real mobile broadband experience and is designed to meet the needs of this 'work anywhere' culture while also boosting productivity and business efficiency."

Ericsson's HSDPA solution will in the future enable peak download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. The advanced technology lets operators more than double their system capacity and cuts response times for interactive services. On average, users will be able to download up to four times faster than with current 3G connections, and 20 times faster than a GSM/GPRS connection.

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