High-Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA
is a new mobile telephony protocol. Also called 3.5G. It is an evolution of 3G, designed to increase the available data rate by a factor of 5 or more. HSDPA does away with two basic features of WCDMA - the variable spreading factor and fast power control - and instead uses Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC), Fast scheduling at the Base Station and Fast retransmissions to deliver the improved downlink performance.
Although 3G is not available in most countries, this protocol does have a chance to become the follow up of 3G. Its success as a GSM-replacement, vis-a-vis other contenders like CDMA2000 1x or CDMA2000 1xEV-DO and not yet finished cellular datacommunication standards like WiMax (IEEE 802.16) is still unclear, especially considering that KDDI's CDMA2000 is generally considered as being much more successful and smooth than DoCoMo's and Vodafone's UMTS/W-CDMA introduction in Japan, which are much slower than initially hoped.
Deployment
HSDPA is beginning to reach deployment status in North America. Cingular has announced that they will begin to deploy UMTS with expansion to HSDPA in eighteen markets on 1 December 2005. By year end 2006, Cingular will have UMTS service in the top 100 markets in the United States.
Cingular announced availability of HSDPA at speeds of 400-700 kbps in 16 cities on 6 December 2005, under the brand name "BroadbandConnect". Cingular faces competitive pressure from operators such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint who use a competing 3G technology, 1xEV-DO, and who have already deployed a similar high speed data service.
In Czech Republic, T-Mobile UMTS TDD with HSDPA from IPWireless as "4G Internet" from 1 October 2005.
In Japan, KDDI has been commercially deploying 3.5G services based on a nationwide 1xEV-DO network since December 2003. Docomo has recently announced (2005) that it will introduce HSDPA from 2006.
In Germany, T-Mobile will officially introduce its HSDPA service at the CeBIT 2006 (9 March - 15 March 2006).
In Italy, Vodafone and 3 will introduce their HSDPA service in mid 2006.
In Sweden 3 will introduce HSDPA service spring 2006
In the Netherlands, T-Mobile will introduce HSDPA service mid 2006, according to their technical support callcenter.
In Austria, T-Mobile started HSDPA deployments in fall of 2005 and will open the network upgrade for public use in March 2006. Mobilkom Austria launched HSDPA on 2006-01-23.
In Canada, Rogers Wireless has announced plans (14 October 2005) for a trial with Ericsson and commercial launch in 2006.
In the United Kingdom, O2 has announced (20 October 2005) deployment of HSDPA on the Isle of Man on 1 November 2005.
In South Africa, Vodacom has started trials and will begin a phased rollout in December 2005. Converting their towers via a software upgrade to HSDPA.
In the Philippines, Globe Telecom has used its 3G and HSDPA facilities during the 23rd SEA Games.
In Canada, Rogers Wireless has indicated they plan to begin deployment of a 3G and HSPDA Network within 2006.
In Australia, Telstra announced plans on the 15 November 2005 for the rollout of a new national 3G/WCDMA network with HSDPA which is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2006. In 2007 it is expected to reach 98% of the Australian population.
|