Vodafone will work alongside Ericsson, Huawei and Qualcomm to trial Release 7 HSPA+ (also known as HSPA Evolution), which has the potential of delivering data throughput rates of up to 28.8 Mbps compared to the 14.4 Mbps maximum offered by today’s HSPA networks.
HSPA+ technology is designed to offer higher throughput than HSPA through its use of multiple antennae on both base stations and handsets (Multiple Input Multiple Output) as well as the deployment of a complex modulation technique called 64-QAM HSDPA. Both features will require new advanced devices compliant to 3GPP Release7 standard.
Last year Vodafone launched a 3G broadband service based on High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) with downlink peak rates of up to 7.2Mbps in selected hotspots within some key markets. Vodafone said it plans to carry out software upgrades to more of these selected hotspots to deliver up to14.4 Mbps from the end of the year as part of the existing HSPA roadmap subject to device availability.http://www.vodafone.com
