T-Mobile and Vodafone to show HSDPA/ HSUPA

March 15, 2007

Two big German mobile phone operators are racing to bring higher-speed data services to data-hungry customers on the go.

T-Mobile, the mobile phone arm of Deutsche Telekom, and Vodafone will demonstrate at the Cebit trade show higher data rates for two underlying 3G technologies, HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access), the companies announced at separate news conferences Wednesday in Hanover, Germany.

Visitors to the show will be able to test HSDPA service at data speeds up to 7.2Mbps and HSUPA at speeds up to 1.45Mbps at the T-Mobile and Vodafone booths.

That compares with the operators' current 3.6Mbps HSDPA and 1Mbps HSUPA.

Around the globe, enterprise users of mobile data service seek higher speeds to send and fetch large PowerPoint presentations and e-mail attachments as well as for using company intranet services more effectively.

T-Mobile plans to offer 7.2Mbps HSDPA service later this year, according to Deutsche Telekom CEO Ren Obermann.

Vodafone, which is currently testing 7.2Mbps HSDPA in a handful of cities, plans to launch commercial services in several large metropolitan areas in the coming markets, a company spokeswoman said.

Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone have regularly used Germany, Europe's largest mobile phone market, as a launching pad for new services, including high-speed mobile Internet.