`3.5G' mobile technology now in India
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Today's mobile speeds will be jacked up at least five-fold
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THE NEXT ramp-up in the mobile industry's speed road map to India is around the corner.
The Swedish telecom leader, Ericsson, which is also the largest supplier in this country of cellular base stations — the ground equipment behind mobile phone networks — has demonstrated the first ever test link of what is popularly known as `3.5G'.
Better than 3G
This is better than the much touted `3G' or third generation mobile networks where high speed data, voice and video can be exchanged. The demonstration was conducted in Delhi last month, during the annual Convergence India exhibition, and was witnessed by Shakeel Ahmed, the Union Minister of State for Communications and Information and Ericsson's India Managing Director Mats Granryd.
High download speeds
The zippy new technology, is known as HSDPA — High Speed Data Downlink Packet Access — industry jargon which means the download speeds at which video or data can be sucked into a mobile phone could theoretically be as high as 10 mega bits per second (MBPS) — but in practice would be around a half to one-third this speed. It is the next evolutionary step in speeding up today's GSM or Global Services Mobile networks after it has upgraded to EDGE — Enhanced Data Rate for GSM and WCDMA — Wide Band Code Division Multiple Access.
This alphabet soup of acronyms, in lay person's terms, means today's mobile speeds will be jacked up at least five-fold.
Last year at the same event, Ericsson demonstrated a basic 3G connection from Delhi to Stockholm. If any of these new technologies are to reach the Indian consumer, say telecom watchers, there is urgent need to unshackle the industry by releasing more spectrum.
New cellular slots
Currently Indian cellular providers operate in the 900 and 1800 MHz band the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology has recommended identifying new cellular slots — in the 2000-2600 MHz band — before the full potential of 3G and 3.5G services can be realised.
ANAND PARTHASARATHY
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