Mobile Broadband HSDPA

Mobile technology is in its developing phase which started off from 1G (1st generation) and presently reached the 4G (4th generation) standards. A group of wireless telephony standards which provided mobile communication were termed as 1st generation standards. The complete development of the next set of standards was termed as 2G, 3G and 4G. The development of these standards has improved the speed, reliability, security and coverage of mobile communication.

3G (3rd generation) standards are the recently adapted technology in UK, USA and some Asian countries. However there are few countries like Japan and South Korea who have adapted 4G standards. There were few technologies in between the transition of 3G and 4G which are termed as 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G. All the standards included in this family are together known as High speed packet access (HSPA). One of the major protocols in the HSPA family is known as the High Speed Download Link Packet Access (HSDPA). Based on HSDPA the present download speed is between 2Mbps to 14Mbps. Speeds beyond 14Mbps would be coined as 3GPP standards.

HSDPA (High Speed Download Packet Access)

HSDPA is also a part of the UMTS standards which improves the uplink speed to 384Kbps. It also increases the latency and round trip time of the applications. There is also another version of the HSDPA which can offer a speed of 42Mbps and was renamed as HSPA evolved. Mobile broadband data transmissions were greatly benefited with the release of the HSDPA standards. At present the speed provided by the providers in UK is 7.2Mbps, which can be attained only under ideal conditions. Especially signal strength can be affected indoor which could be improved using external 3G antennas.

HSDPA can provide a rich experience for the users while surfing the internet. Voice and Video can be transmitted at faster speeds without any drop in the quality. Mobile Broadband providers in UK offer HSDPA enabled mobile phones and USB modems to obtain 3G data service at a minimum speed of 2.8Mbps. The average speed obtained in most parts of UK is 7.2Mbps; however the providers are in the process of upgrading the service up to 14.Mbps. Areas which do not have HSDPA access will automatically switch to EDGE, GPRS or other 1x services.

The advantages of HSDPA technology are:

  1. Information access at faster rates than DSL connection.
  2. Increased security levels for emails and other communication.
  3. Seamless connectivity without the requirement of wireless hot spots.
  4. Secured as a private IP address under one common firewall which will make the work of hackers tougher.