Network equipment vendors have been promising faster data speeds to counter disappointment with 3G. Originally billed as mobile broadband, 3G services so far peak at 384 kbps and services have been delayed by a lack of handsets.
HSDPA--High-Speed Downlink Packet Access--can get speeds up to a maximum of 14.4 Mbps by handling data traffic more efficiently than first-generation 3G networks. Orange has promised HSDPA, and O2 is on track to starting delivering it on the Isle of Man this year.
Nortel's demonstration, which took place at Chateaufort, France, used a handset from LG that is slated for commercial release later this year, and achieved sustained downloads of music and files at 1.4 Mbps in a moving car.
"This shows the resiliency of HSDPA for high-bandwidth downloads, while driving around," said Nortel spokesman Ben Roome. "It's not in the lab with the handset close to the base station." When ZDNet UK tested current 3G technology on the road, its performance was less than stellar.
HSDPA could be rolled out much more quickly than the original 3G networks, said Roome, because it just involves a software upgrade to Nortel equipment owned by the operators.
Peter Judge of ZDNet UK reported from London.
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