Qualcomm Announces HSPA+ Trials for This Year - LTE Support Next Year

Published on: 7th February 2008

Qualcomm has announced that multiple network operators have committed to trialing HSPA+ technology this year. To be conducted with operators including Hutchison 3G, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Telstra, the Company's HSPA+ trials bring the technology another step closer to commercialization.

HSPA+ is a seamless upgrade from HSPA, delivering up to 28 Mbps mobile broadband and dramatic increases in network capacity without the need for new spectrum.

"HSPA+ provides a highly efficient path for network operators to provide next-generation wireless services with their existing networks," said Steve Mollenkopf, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "With trials this year, we are on track for commercialization in 2009, giving network operators the added benefit of time-to-market advantage in addition to advanced broadband capabilities."

The trials will use Qualcomm's Mobile Data Modem MDM8200 chipset. Key features being trialed include 64-QAM HSDPA for 21 Mbps downlink data rates and 2x2 downlink MIMO for 28 Mbps downlink data rates.

HSPA+ commercialization is expected as early as next year.

In related news, Qualcomm has also expanded both its device and base station chipset roadmaps to include Long Term Evolution (LTE). The MDM9xxx-series chipsets will allow UMTS and CDMA2000 operators to upgrade seamlessly to future LTE services while preserving backward compatibility to their existing 3G UMTS and CDMA2000 networks.

"Qualcomm is in a very unique position with LTE, being one of the very few companies that will be able to offer multi-mode solutions that deliver an upgrade path for operators looking to complement their existing 3G networks with LTE," said Steve Mollenkopf, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "We are pleased that we will be able to leverage our industry-leading technology position to offer LTE solutions to our customers."

The LTE solutions are scheduled to sample in the second quarter of 2009.

 

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