First end-to-end HSDPA calls on a commercial network and handset

January 31, 2005

Nortel and Qualcomm have completed the industry's first end-to-end calls using WCDMA's emerging broadband technology - High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) - on a commercial network and handset equipment. The calls demonstrate the capability to commercially deliver a new era of 'supercharged' mobile services.

"Qualcomm is committed to helping the WCDMA community extend the utilization of wireless for data communications purposes," said Dr. Sanjay K. Jha, president, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "This practical demonstration is a big step forward towards the realization of commercial HSDPA networks and an important validation of the enhanced performance HSDPA will bring to carriers."

The calls were completed using commercial network equipment from Nortel and the industry's first available handset solution, which is enabled by Qualcomm's Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM6275 chipset. Calls were made over a live air connection to a moving automobile to demonstrate the stability of the connection in a real-world environment.

Mobile broadband services simulated include high-resolution interactive gaming, multimedia music tracks, DVD-quality film and video, 'push-to-watch' services and access to large e-mail attachments - at speeds more than three times faster than today's commercial next generation networks. For example, a five-megabyte music file was downloaded in less than 30 seconds, and an e-mail with a three-megabyte attachment was downloaded in 20 seconds, which is comparable to DSL or ADSL speeds.

HSDPA is a migration technology for the UMTS wireless standard used by wireless operators across Europe, Japan and North America to deliver voice and data services. HSDPA boosts network capacity to carry up to three times as much data traffic and up to twice as many wireless users per cell site compared to today's UMTS networks. By making more efficient use of the existing network and boosting throughput, HSDPA significantly reduces operating costs while delivering a better end-user experience.