Vodafone Reveals High Speed Mobile Broadband

With this achievement in the bag the company now hopes to manage an even greater speed with new trials in 2009 hoping to get to 21Mbps at its peak with the use of HSPA + MIMO functionality.

Andy MacLeod, Global Networks Director of Vodafone points out, “Successfully demonstrating a live HSPA+ high speed connection has been a key milestone in continuing to build confidence in this new technology.”

The technology, when implemented, will allow users of mobile broadband to achieve a download rate of 13Mbps in the better conditions, with an average of 4Mbps. It is highlighted that these trials do not reflect the actual speed that will be used if the technology is implemented on commercial networks, with these being around 25% lower due to an overhead margin. However, it will still offer higher speeds than the current model downloads which offers speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps (not an average) and as a result the new technology is being championed as a way of improving customers’ experience of using mobile broadband technology.

“The results show that HSPA+ technology is well placed to further enhance our customers’ mobile broadband experience through the evolution of our existing 3G networks,” MacLeod added.

The current trial took place with HSPA + 64QAM technology using Vodafone Spain’s network. It is hoped that the new technology will become available in certain networks.

HSPA+ is the technology allowing this leap in 3G mobile broadband (which Vodafone refer to as ‘technology enhancements’ operated by the 3GPP) and has been used with 64QAM, a form of modulation that allows further increases in the power that mobile broadband can have. The next trials will use MIMO, which is the use of Multiple Input Multiple Output, which is essentially the use of a number of antennae.

The study was carried out by Vodafone with Ericsson and Qualcomm Inc. The aim was to show how much potential the technology has in laboratory conditions.