3 Confirms HSDPA Launch After Successful Trial

Mobile media company 3 has confirmed that it will launch a High Speed Downlink Packet Access (“HSDPA”) service on its 3G network in the UK in the second half of 2006,following a successful trial of the technology. The trial, which has been running for the last four months, has achieved speeds of up to 1.4 Mbps, over three times faster than current 3G speeds, and more than 40 times faster than GPRS.
The first voice and data downloads on HSDPA were performed over 3s network in Maidenhead. The trial, conducted on Nokia and NEC infrastructure, will be extended to selected urban areas in May, prior to implementation in 3s commercial network in the second half of 2006.
HSDPA works by using a more advanced radio modulation scheme. This, combined with a more efficient radio network design, delivers the higher data rates, and also makes more efficient use of radio spectrum, delivering capacity more cost effectively.
3 has led the development of 3G in the UK, and with this successful trial, we are leading the development of HSDPA says 3 Chief Technical Officer, David Cooper. HSDPA will bring a range of benefits to our customers, including faster download speeds, higher quality content and easy transfer of larger files.
3s 3G network currently has over 88% population coverage. The company was judged Best 3G network at the Mobile Choice Awards.
T-Mobile recently confirmed that it will launch its HSDPA network in Germany before the end of March, with a UK launch to follow in the summer.
T-Mobile Confirms HSDPA launch. Read