650Mbps HSPA OMG

Nokia & T-Mobile Announce 650 Mbps HSPA

Posted by Sam Churchill on December 16th, 2010

T-Mobile USA and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) arebacking an HSPA-based technology that they claim could compete with the peak-rate data speeds promised by LTE Advanced, reports Fierce Broadband.

The companies say ‘Long Term HSPA Evolution,’ could achieve peak-rate data speeds of 650Mb/s, near the Advanced LTE system.

Such a capability would require a 40-megahertz wide channel, as opposed to 10 Mhz in today’s LTE networks or up to 20 Mhz channels in Advanced LTE, an officially sanctioned “4G” standard designed to deliver up to 100 Mbps (mobile) and up to 1 Gbps (fixed). The advanced HSPA standard would allow operators to combine spectrum from various frequencies. That means part could be in the 1900 MHz band, while another part could use spectrum in the AWS band, the 2.6 Ghz band, or even satellite ATC frequencies at 1.6 Ghz.

Their aim is to see the technology commercially deployed by 2013. The “key features” of Long Term HSPA Evolution were accepted during the plenary meeting of 3GPP RAN held on 7-10 December, according to the two companies.

“We strongly believe in continued HSPA evolution in parallel to the further development of LTE and LTE Advanced,” said Neville Ray (pictured), CTO at T-Mobile USA. Long Term HSPA Evolution would allow T-Mobile USA to squeeze more life out of its existing infrastructure. T-Mobile has courted controversy with a marketing campaign in the US that claims its existing HSPA+-based service is “4G.”

Back in October, the ITU declared LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced as official 4G technologies. Verizon Wireless – with its recently launched LTE network and Clearwire with WiMAX – are not officially 4G, according to the ITU definition.

A similar solution is used now in Dual-Channel HSPA+ (DC-HSPDA) networks, which combine data from two frequencies and delivers speeds up to 42 Mbps.

Nine operators — including Bell Mobility in Canada and Telstra in Australia — have already launched services at 42M bps. The average real-world download speed is reportedly 7M bps to 14 Mbps.

According to Wikipedia, from Release 9 onwards it will be possible to use DC-HSDPA in combination with MIMO. The support of MIMO in combination with DC-HSDPA will allow operators deploying Release 7 MIMO to benefit from the DC-HSDPA functionality as defined in Release 8. While in Release 8 DC-HSPDA can only operate on adjacent carriers, Release 9 allow that the paired cells can operate on two different frequency bands.

In other news, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless today announced the formation of a joint venture chartered with building ISIS, a national mobile commerce network that aims to fundamentally transform how people shop, pay and save.

Isis’ initial focus will be on building a mobile payment network that utilizes mobile phones to make point-of-sale purchases.

By utilizing smartphone and near-field communication (NFC) technology to modernize the payments process, Isis intends to deliver new levels of competition and value to consumers and merchants. Isis expects to introduce its service in key geographic markets during the next 18 months.”

source : dailywireless.org