EMobile, Japan’s smallest mobile operator, has deployed HSPA+, also known as HSPA Evolved, in the country’s major cities, including Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, and Nagoya, reports Unstrung.
Ericsson supplied the core network and systems integration, building out the geographical coverage for HSPA+ that EMobile has already established using Huawei gear in a number of Japan’s other cities, including Hokkaido, Sendai, Niigata, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Nagasaki. (See Unstrung: Huawei, EMobile Launch HSPA+)
HSPA+ has been passed over by market leader NTT DoCoMo, which has focused on moving to Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as well as the No. 2 player, KDDI, although from a CDMA base that takes HSPA out of the equation, explains Unstrung. Softbank Mobile, the 3rd largest mobile carrier in Japan, has also said it will move to LTE when it gets the necessary spectrum.
As of August 2009, there were 11 HSPA+ networks running in the world at 21Mbit/s. The first to launch was Telstra in Australia in late 2008, with Australia-wide access in February 2009 with speeds up to 21Mbit/sec. Telstra Mobile, Australia’s largest mobile provider, replaced their CDMA network with GSM in 2008.
AT&T Mobility will likely use HSPA+, unlike Verizon which is making the jump directly to LTE next year on their 700 Mhz spectrum. Verizon plans to use LTE first with mobile data cards, then follow up with voice. AT&T plans to move to LTE a year or two later than Verizon, and expects HSPA+ will provide a bridge.
Some of the advantages of HSPA+ include:
- An HSPA+ network is backward compatible with HSPA–thus the existing HSPA handsets will continue to work.
- New HSPA+ handsets that include MIMO capabilities can be offered with greater bandwidth and higher levels of service.
- The base stations from all leading vendors are software upgradeable, although they do typically require new head-end RF units with MIMO-AAS capability.
AT&T plans to boost the speed of its 3G wireless network with HSPA+ in 2009, extending the lifetime of 3G.
AT&T plans to begin deployment of HSPA 7.2 in six major U.S. cities this year, including Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, with initial service availability expected in these markets by the end of the year. All told, the company plans to deploy HSPA 7.2 in 25 of the nation’s 30 largest markets by the end of 2010, and to reach about 90 percent of its existing 3G network footprint with HSPA 7.2 by the end of 2011.
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley’s annual Communications Conference, last year, the company’s mobility chief Ralph de la Vega said AT&T plans to transition to HSPA release 7 sometime in 2009.
Ralph de la Vega said the upgrade will require few if any hardware modifications to the company’s infrastructure and achieved largely through a software upgrade to its electronics. He also said that his firm has “a clear and logical path” to 700MHz 4G access via the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard in the 2010 timeframe which should again increase speeds fivefold “to nearly 100 megabits per second”.
Related DailyWireless articles include: AT&T: We Like HSPA, 4G: War to End Wars , AT&T: It’s LTE, Verizon: It’s LTE, Sprint: It’s WiMAX, Xohm “Partners”?, T-Mobile: $10B in 3 Years, Nokia Siemens: LTE Works, and XOHM Live?
