3GSM - T-Mobile to launch HSDPA this month in Europe

Mobile phone customers of T-Mobile International AG in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands can expect faster mobile Internet access this month.

The German operator plans to offer High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in these three markets first, with its other markets, including the U.K., to follow later in the year, said CTO Hamid Akhavan at a news conference on Tuesday.

Speeds of 1.8Mbps will be available at the launch, according to Akhavan. Next year, the operator hopes to increase speeds to between 3.6M and 7.2Mbps, he said. These are speeds that compete with fixed-lined DSL technology, he said.

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Mobile phone customers of T-Mobile International AG in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands can expect faster mobile Internet access this month.

The German operator plans to offer High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) in these three markets first, with its other markets, including the U.K., to follow later in the year, said CTO Hamid Akhavan at a news conference on Tuesday.

Speeds of 1.8Mbps will be available at the launch, according to Akhavan. Next year, the operator hopes to increase speeds to between 3.6M and 7.2Mbps, he said. These are speeds that compete with fixed-lined DSL technology, he said.

T-Mobile will not offer customers an HSDPA-branded service but rather automatically connect them where service is available, Akhavan said.

Initially, users will only be able to connect to the network using an HSDPA card inserted in their notebooks, according to Ulli Gritzuhn, chief marketing director at T-Mobile. They will "have to wait most likely until the third quarter" for mobile handsets based on the higher-speed 3G technology, he said.

On Monday, BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co., a company formed following the acquisition last year of Siemens AG's mobile phone division by Taiwanese manufacturer BenQ., announced plans to be the first manufacturer to deliver an HSDPA mobile handset in time for the start of the World Cup soccer games in Germany beginning in June.

But Gritzuhn is skeptical: "It would be great to have HSDPA phones in time for the game because the quality of mobile TV streams would be much better than at current speeds, but I really don't expect the phones to arrive on time," he said.

As for mobile TV service broadcast to handsets, Gritzuhn said several pilots based on Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) will be taking place during the games.

T-Mobile, however, doesn't plan to offer DMB service, according to Gritzuhn. "We view DVB-H as a superior technology and intend to offer a commercial service based on this technology, hopefully in the near future. Some standards and spectrum issues must be resolved before we can move ahead."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.