Ericsson Plans to Demo 56Mbps on HSPA at CTIA

Ericsson, leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators, announced recently that it would continue to work on the increase of HSPA speeds so as to be able to offer users a leveraged experience, while also sustaining the development of mobile broadband. Leveraged speeds means higher data rates, and, as such, users would be able to experience almost instantaneous connections. According to the company, they would soon be able to open web pages immediately after clicking on a link, even at times when more users would be online at the same time.

What lies beneath these words is the company's plans to prove that it is able to break its own HSPA world record while demonstrating HSPA multi-carrier MIMO technology, which would allow it to offer peak downlink data rates of 56Mbps at the upcoming CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas, April 1-3. Basically, the company plans to take another step in the HSPA Evolution with the demonstration that it will make in Las Vegas.

The speed enhancements that will be demonstrated are based on the use of a combination of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and multi-carrier HSPA technology. MIMO, says Ericsson, would allow for higher peak data rates while also increasing the efficiency of the spectrum, offering this way a higher network capacity.

The company plans to use for the demonstration a concept-design variant of the Ericsson HSPA-enabled mobile-broadband router, which can be used anywhere in case there is need for broadband access, offering shared mobile-broadband connection between multiple users, while also being able to efficiently use the high-speed broadband connection.

According to the company, the HSPA multi-carrier technology with MIMO is currently under the standardization process, and is expected to become ready for deployment as soon as next year. Ericsson plans to support commercial deployment of multi-carrier technology that would be able to offer speeds of up to 42Mbps by the end of the ongoing year. The fact that such speeds are possible has been demonstrated last month in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress.

“Ericsson's continued HSPA Evolution leadership enables higher data rates, increased network capacity and low network costs. This record-breaking demonstration combining MIMO and multi-carrier technology shows the strong potential of further HSPA enhancements. Operators that have chosen Ericsson's network equipment are in a unique position to offer the most attractive mobile-broadband services to their customers, today and in the years to come,” stated Ulf Ewaldsson, vice president and head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson.