Orange has tested HSPA services at 1800MHz using equipment supplied by Ericsson, ST-Ericsson, and Quanta Computer.
The 1800MHz band, which is being used for 2G mobile services, will be refarmed for HSPA. The four companies tested data services running at speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps on dongles developed by Quanta using ST-Ericsson’s low power M570 HSPA+ thin modem. For the trial, Ericsson supplied Orange with an HSPA 1800 network made up of several radio sites located in central France. Orange plans to start deploying HSPA 1800 devices in the second quarter of 2011.
Commercial launch of HSPA services in this spectrum band is expected in the second half of 2011.
http://www.ericsson.com
