World's first HSPA+ dongle to debut at Mobile World Congress

Posted by Al Warmington on Fri 23 Jan 2009

Huawei to showcase Vodafone's promised mobile broadband upgrade?

Telecoms equipment supplier Huawei has revealed that it will be showing off the world’s first commercial HSPA+ modem at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event, taking place in Barcelona next month.

HSPA+ looks like the next step in mobile broadband, and Vodafone has already brought it to light during recent trials. HSPA+ uses clever sounding jargon, including ‘advanced modulation’ and ‘multiple antennae’, to boost data speeds up to a theoretical 16Mbps, doubling that of current 3G.

Huawei’s connection to the Vodafone trials is unknown, but The Link has done a bit of detective work and observes that Vodafone released a statement early last year announcing partnerships with Huawei (amongst others) to develop the service. Huawei’s commercial HSPA+ stick could therefore be the first glance of Vodafone’s upcoming service, unless of course another network has quietly beaten it to the punch.

No release date or price has been revealed, but it does sound like HSPA+ will be arriving a lot sooner than we’d first thought. Mobile World Congress is taking place from the 16^th – 19^th February.

Link: Huawei (via The Link)