Italian mobile phone operator H3G Italia has officially launched HSDPA (3.5 generation mobile telephony), plans opting for Siemens Italia as its technological partner. HSDPA enables the achievement of transmission speeds of 1.4 Mbps, reducing significantly the download times compared to UMTS. H3G and Siemens representatives claim that the current transport capacity will reach 4 Mbps in 2006 and arrive to 14 Mbps in the next few years, thus surpassing the limits imposed by the cards which are currently available. H3G made the first public demonstration of HSDPA in July and will launch ground trials in Rome (in October) and Milan (November), while the service will fully launch to the public in the spring of 2006. “Data cards for data transmissions will be available by next summer, followed by high speed video phones. Our traditional suppliers such as Motorola and NEC are already at work preparing the new terminals that will have the same dimensions and weight as the UMTS models”, said a H3G spokesperson. Vodafone Italia also recently announced its official debut in HDSPA technology in partnership with Nokia.
