EVDO and HSDPA Upgrades

Both the CDMA-based EVDO mobile broadband technology and its GSM equivalent HSDPA are set to see significant increases in speed, according to announcements made today by organizations involved with both standards. The first to arrive will be HSUPA, Nortel and Samsung jointly revealed today at the ITU Telecom conference in Hong Kong. Although its theoretical download speed of 5.6Mbps is a modest upgrade relative to the 3.6Mbps of the HSDPA original, the newer technology achieves much improved real-world speeds. Samsung demonstrated an example connection that achieved not only a true 3.6Mbps download rate but also a much improved 2Mbps upload rate, far outclassing the respective 800Kbps and 300Kbps rates often seen in practicewith the earlier format. The new speeds will allow higher-quality television and Internet-based tools previously thought impossible for cellular Internet access. Actual deployments of HSUPA are expected in 2007, with Europe's Orange scheduled to be the first carrier.

Read through for etails of the EVDO enhancements.

More dramatic is the planned revision C of EVDO, now to be known as Ultra Mobile Broadband. Much as with 802.11n local wireless, UMB will use multiple antennas to dramatically upgrade both reception and overall speed; while the as-yet unused EVDO Revision B is capable of a theoretical 74Mbps, UMB can intelligently bond signals to achieve an unprecedented 280Mbps downstream, according to the CDMA Development Group responsible for the format's creation. Upload speed was not mentioned but is expected to exceed that of HSUPA. UMB is currently limited to an early testing phase but should be available worldwide in early 2009.

By Electronista Staff