T-Mobile Announces HSDPA Launch Date

T-Mobile UK says that it will launch its HSDPA upgrade from the beginning of August, joining Vodafone in the UK as providers of the service. It delivers speeds up to a theoretical maximum of 1.8 megabits per second. In practice, this means delivered speeds of 1 megabyte or more for customers, comparing favourably with the vast majority of current fixed broadband internet connections.

T-Mobile's HSDPA network already covers 65% of the UK's population. It is the latest step in T-Mobile's roadmap to deliver speeds in excess of 20 megabits by the end of the decade and supports T-Mobile's belief that mobile will in the future become individuals' primary access to the internet, further displacing the fixed line.

The new service will initially be available on web'n'walk data cards, which can be slotted into customers' compatible laptops to give HSDPA as well as WiFi and GPRS access. By year end, this will be followed by the progressive introduction of a range of HSDPA handsets and wireless pocket computers.

Jim Hyde, T-Mobile UK Managing Director, said "Just as mobile has become the principal medium for most customers' voice calls, so we see mobile in future becoming the principal medium for their internet access. The beginnings of this are already visible, and today's launch of HSDPA takes it an important step further.

Next year, T-Mobile intends to increase HSDPA speeds up to 3.6 megabits per second. It intends following this with further increases through 7.2 and then 10 megabytes per second, targetting speeds in excess of 20 megabits per second by the end of the decade.

Earlier this year, T-Mobile launched HSDPA in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Hungary, making it Europe's first and largest high speed mobile broadband network."

Posted to the site on 22nd June 2006