Mobile broadband world’s first unveiled

With an imminent battle for dominance between the bodies backing a number of mobile broadband standards increasingly likely for 2009, especially between LTE and WiMAX, Ericsson and Telstra have upped the stakes with the worldwide debut of a commercial HSPA network offering up to 21 Mbps.

The Swedish telecoms firms and the Australian incumbent activated the HSPA service in the Brisbane area offering peak network speeds up to 21 Mbps into the Telstra Next G commercial network and have made what hey claims is the world’s first data call on the newly-enabled network.

The two firms say that, for the first time, a commercial network is making use of the enhanced, standardised improvements promised by the so-called HSPA Evolution.

Mike Wright, Executive Director Telstra Wireless made the first data call on the Next G network in Brisbane, and trials of the 21 Mbps mobile broadband service on the Next G network will begin in December 2008 month with a full commercial launch to follow early in 2009.

This is designed to bring about a new dimension to broadband experience with the capability for significantly faster internet browsing and file download; even faster than many fixed broadband connections. With HSPA Evolution, Ericsson and Telstra believe that operators will be able to increase the capacity of networks and reduce the costs to deliver mobile broadband services.