Cingular Launches HSDPA Network Using Qualcomm Chipset

By ROBERT LIU
TMCnet Wireless and Technology Columnist

Cingular Wireless’ previously announced High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network officially launched under the brand name Cingular BroadbandConnect, offering 3G voice and data services to as many as 35 million wireless subscribers in 16 major metropolitan markets.

“This is the first time in the world that such a widescale deployment of this new technology has been undertaken and cingular is proud to lead the way,” explained Ralph de la Vega, chief operating officer for Cingular Wireless, on a conference call on Tuesday.

But while Lucent Technologies and Ericsson are finally getting their HSDPA terminals up and running for Cingular, the main stumbling block remains how consumers will be able to take advantage of BroadbandConnect, which promises average mobile data connections between 400-700Kbps (kilobits per second) on the downlink and bursts to more than a megabit per second.

“At the end of the day, it’s about handset replacements. You’ve got to go through the typical handset replacement cycles,” said Linda Barrabee, senior analyst at Yankee Group.

While business travelers have a variety of ways to access Wi-Fi hotspot service, Cingular's subscribers at present can only access the HSDPA network using data cards supplied by Novatel Wireless and Sierra Wireless. But Qualcomm on Wednesday announced that its Mobile Station Modem MSM6275 chipset solution, which is at the heart of the data cards, will be available on mobile handsets and other wireless devices supporting data rates of up to 1.8 Mbps by 2006. And wireless devices based on the company’s MSM6280 solution supporting data rates of up to 7.2 Mbps will follow.

HSDPA is the high-speed evolution of GSM/EDGE (Global System for Mobile Communication/Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution), which shares a common core network. GSM is the world's most popular wireless technology, which is used by more than one billion people in 210 countries.

Cingular’s initial launch will supply the BroadbandConnect service in Austin (TX.), Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland (OR.), Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose (CA.), Seattle, Tacoma (Wash.) and Washington D.C.

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.

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