HANOVER, Germany -(Dow Jones)- Dutch telecommunications firm Royal KPN NV (KPN) Wednesday said it will start upgrading its third-generation mobile-phone networks with the so-called HSDPA technology starting in 2006.
HSDPA, which stands for high-speed downlink packet access, offers data transfer many times faster than the current third-generation mobile networks.
"We see HSDPA as a logical future step," KPN mobile division Chief Executive Guy Demuynck told a media conference at the CeBIT high-technology trade fair in Hanover. "It is a standard evolution of (3G) and we will start initial implementation in heavy traffic areas in 2006," he added.
However, Demuynck said it still remains the question when 3G services will become a mass-market service. "The question is, will 2005 be the breakthrough for (3G)?"
He repeated his mantra that he views 3G services, which European mobile operators launched in 2004, as "an evolution, not a revolution."
He said he expects the current Global System for Mobile cellular-wireless networks to stay in use for the next five to 10 years.
One of the products mobile operators are betting on to become a possible killer-application for 3G customers, is television on mobile phones. Demuynck said KPN is testing mobile TV at present, and depending on the results of those tests, KPN will launch a mobile-TV offering in 2006.
-By Joon Knapen, Dow Jones Newswires; +49-69-29725509; joon.knapen@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 9th March 2005
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