Replies to post #59588 on InterDigital Inc (IDCC)

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HSDPA adding an edge to 3G – InterDigital



By Anne Morris, TOTAL TELECOM, in Cannes
24 February 2004

The technology is not 4G, stresses InterDigital.



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Buzzwords and acronyms usually abound at the 3GSM World Congress and the 2004 event is no exception.

This year's hot potato seems to be HSDPA – or high-speed downlink packet access to the uninitiated. Essentially, HSDPA makes 3G better – by improving data speeds to levels that we all thought we were going to get with 3G mobile services anyway.


Some have even described HSDPA as 4G – but whatever 4G turns out to actually mean it is not HSDPA, said wireless technology specialist InterDigital. HSDPA is more like 3.25G.

"HSDPA is to 3G what EDGE is to GPRS," commented Jim Nolan, vice president, system engineering, at InterDigital. "It's a modification" that provides data rate benefits through the improved optimisation of spectrum, he added.

Current 3G speeds generally average out at around 144 kilobits per second per user – far from the once-promised 2 Mbps. But with HSDPA, speeds could be boosted to more than 384 Kbps per user, Nolan said.

He thinks it is essential for mobile operators, faced with competition from high data-rate technologies such as wireless LAN and fixed lines, to add more competitive data rates to their 3G service offerings. And he said there is going to be a growing demand for data – at least if the model seen in Japan is anything to go by.

Japan is a good example of how an efficient network and good handsets can boost subscriber uptake of functionality and applications, said Charles Rip Tilden, COO of InterDigital. Obviously, it cannot be said for certain that this model will be repeated everywhere else in the world, he added.

InterDigital is working on its own HSDPA product and thinks the technology is a "year-plus" away.

But if HSDPA is not 4G, then what is?

"There is no industry consensus on 4G," said Tilden. But it is often envisioned as "a network of networks" where all air interfaces are converged and interoperable with one another.