Samsung Reveals first 3.5G Phone
4th January 2006
Samsung,
working in conjunction with Qualcomm have given a glimpse
of what's likely to be the first HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink
Packet Access) phone, designed for use on Vodafone's
forthcoming 3.5G network in Europe.
From the limited amount of information available,
the first handset appears to be cosmetically similar
to early Samsung 3G phones (such as the Z105). The main
feature here though is the handset's potential 1.5Mb/sec
download speed, which is several times better than a
standard UMTS 3G phone (at around 0.3Mb/sec). Ultimately,
HSDPA should be capable of working at up to 7Mb/sec
initially, and then 14Mb/sec and beyond when new equipment
becomes available.
HSDPA works on top of W-CDMA cellular networks (as
does the standard 3G UMTS). As with the original rollout
of 3G devices, you can expect the initial coverage for
HSDPA to be somewhat limited and initially of use to
business customers who want to make high-speed connections
to corporate data networks while on the move. These
networks are being rolled out in Europe, North America
and Japan during 2006.
One final point - although 3.5G sounds impressive,
you should bear in mind that T-Mobile is currently rolling
out a 4G data network in Prague, Czech Republic.
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