HSPA: Performance Guaranteed

HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) is a wireless broadband standard defined in 3rd Generation Partnership Project in 2008. It is a blend of two mobile telephony protocols-High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), that improves the performance of existing Wireless Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) protocols. It operates on a multiple-antenna technique such as Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) and higher order modulation (64QAM). It delivers peak sector speeds. HSPA+ of version 7 offers data rates up to 84 Mbit/s per second on the downlink and 22 Mbit/s on the uplink. Versions 11 of HSPA+ support up to 168 Mbit/s using multiple carriers and upto 672 Mbit/s. Evolution HSPA will enhance cellular capabilities.

Undoubtedly, the mobile communication services have come a long way from voice to data. Indeed present day's mobile broadband applications including video-on-demand, mobile gaming, mobile TV, mobile internet, m-commerce, m-health, m-trading are bandwidth and speed hungry. Consumers demand high-speed internet as the content is growing more. Evolution of HSPA guarantees return on the existing investments by using the same spectrum and network resources to deliver enhanced performance. It is a software upgrade to the existing base stations.

Gaining Prominence

According to a survey conducted by GSM Association, HSPA mobile broadband technology is gaining traction over Wi-Fi in many enterprises, particularly in the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific markets mainly because of the flexibility and mobility it evinced. HSPA+ enhances the end-user experience by providing higher peak rates, lower latency, improved experience. It doubles the data capacity over HSPA and provides enhanced voice capacity over WCDMA. It further reduces the cost of delivering voice or data services along with faster call set-up time and longer talk time. It is a boon to delay-sensitive applications such as VoIP, low latency gaming, push to talk/push to media, multimedia upload, high speed web browsing, streaming, etc. It ensures an enhanced user experience with a better 'always-on' experience and more responsive services. It offers backward compatibility.

HSPA+ was first deployed by Telstra in Australia in 2008 with speed up to 21 Mbit/s. At present, HSPA+ service is being offered by Etisalat UAE, Mobily and STC in Saudi Arabia, Vodafone Hungary in Budapest, BendBroadband in US, Cell C in South Africa, AT&T, Etisalat Egpyt in Egypt and entire Middle East, StarHub, M1, SingTel, T-Mobile USA, Bharti airtel and Dialog in Sri Lanka, U Mobile Malaysia, Vodafone Portugal and so on. Other regions where HSPA+ is available includes the Netherlands, Canada, and Russia.

Indian Vista

WCDMA operators are struggling hard to attract users, despite offering low prepaid and postpaid WCDMA tariffs. The cost of WCDMA devices and data plan is a barrier to fast adoption in such a price sensitive market, and this will remain a challenge for the country's auction winners. HSPA+ is capable of delivering best experience to users and will ensure quality of data services with the rollout of 3G, and HSPA+ gives them that competitive edge. Wireless Intelligence analysis has divulged that the total WCDMA connections across the country will reach 150 mn by the end of 2014; at present India has around 10 mn WCDMA connections. The analysis has also identified the potential WCDMA regions-Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal, Assam and North East India other than Delhi and Mumbai.

As per Trai, currently the total broadband users in the country have reached 11.87 mn as on March 2011. The Indian government intends to extend broadband facilities to the entire nation. It aims to leverage on mobile governance as e-governance took a backseat because of digital divide. But it is now making all efforts to leverage the penetration of mobile for the betterment of the country. Hence there is a direct need to deploy advanced technology like HSPA+ to offer enhanced mobile broadband applications. BSNL began upgrading its 3G network to the HSPA+ standards with a minimum speed of 14.4 Mbit/s and maximum speeds of 21.1 Mbits/s in December 2010. Olive Telecom has recently launched India's first Evolved HSPA+ phone running on Android OS. However, HSPA+ should compete with its other strong contenders—WiMax, LTE.

Malini N
malinin@cybermedia.co.in