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How to joinAn enhancement to WCDMA known as High Speed Downlink Packet Access - HSDPA, boosts the air interface capacity and downlink data speeds to a theoretical peak of 14.4 Mbps. HSDPA is part of 3GPP/UTRAN-FDD Release 5 WCDMA specifications. HSDPA shortens round-trip time between network and terminals and reduces variance in downlink transmission delay. HSDPA enables operators to deliver more advanced mobile broadband services such as Internet and corporate access. Its unprecedented data rates currently deliver typical user throughputs of 800 kbps to 3.0 Mbps, depending on individual networks and device capabilities, allowing users to download audio, video and large files or attachments significantly faster than previously possible. The large demand for broadband access, strong growth of laptop penetration combined with full mobility, the wide choise of HSDPA-enabled user devices for all segments, and wide-area coverage of WCDMA networks offers an attractive business opportunity for operators.
The enhancement to the WCDMA uplink is known as High Speed Uplink Packet Access - HSUPA, and is standardised as part of 3GPP Release 6. HSUPA improves uplink capacity, increases uplink data throughput, evolving to 5.8 Mbps peak, reduces latency, improves many services (especially real-time services e.g. wireless gaming, and VoIP), and enables new services.
EDGE today delivers user downlink data speeds up to 300 kbps peak, according to network and device capabilities. Future evolution (EDGE Evolution) will halve latency, increase downlink speed up to 1.2 Mbps per user initially, and increase uplink speed to 474 kbps per user. Network implementation will be a software upgrade of existing equipment.
