Ericsson announced that it will conduct the world's first demonstration of HSPA Evolution technology at CTIA Wireless 2008 in Las Vegas from April 1 to 3. The technology provides data transfer speeds of up to 42 Mbps in the downlink and 12 Mbps in the uplink.

"Achieving speeds of up to 42 Mbps is a major industry milestone. It further strengthens the position of HSPA as the major mobile broadband technology as we go forward. Consumers will enjoy an even richer communications experience thanks to higher speeds, while operators will be able to reduce network operating costs via increased throughput enabled by HSPA Evolution," said Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson.

The high speeds are achieved by combining new higher order modulation technology, together with 2x2 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna technology. 2x2 MIMO doubles the potential downlink data rate using multiple transmit and receive channels and antennas to improve performance and throughput. Separately, using 64QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) provides a 50 per cent increase in potential downlink speed. By combining 2x2 MIMO and 64QAM, data rates of up to 42 Mbps can be achieved on the HSPA downlink. Furthermore, on the HSPA uplink, the introduction of 16QAM provides data rates of up to 12 Mbps. The first step of the HSPA Evolution will be introduced during 2008.

Ericsson's WCDMA/HSPA Radio Access Network solutions offer an evolutionary path for HSPA Evolution. For example, the RBS 3000 family of base stations from Ericsson supports both HSPA Evolution and LTE (Long Term Evolution) broadband technology, while Ericsson's recently launched RBS 6000 series of next-generation radio base stations offers a multi-standard solution that supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA Evolution and LTE.

To date, HSPA has been commercially launched in more than 80 countries. Out of the 185 HSPA networks worldwide, 90 have been delivered by Ericsson and will be eligible for upgrade to HSPA Evolution.