Ericsson strikes another blow in 3G v WiMAX battle

Stuart Corner
Monday, 12 February 2007 03:53

Business IT - Technology

Plans by Intel and others to embed WiMAX functionality in future laptops are well advanced, now Ericsson has announced plans to the same for cellular technology's rival to WiMAX: HSDPA.

At 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, February 12-15, Ericsson is launching its new HSPA embedded module, which enables 3G mobile broadband functionality to be built into new laptop computers, and other devices.

HÃ¥kan Eriksson, CTO, Ericsson, said: "For Ericsson, this way of offering HSPA embedded modules in notebooks is completely new. We believe it's what's needed to make mobile broadband take off... We want to make mobile broadband a mass market and with this new offering we are taking the lead."
 
He added: "We will leverage our worldwide, end-to-end testing facilities, extensive knowledge in radio design and our mobile platform technology for this state-of-the-art product."
 
Ericsson's HSPA module, designed, manufactured and marketed by the company's new 'Embedded Modules' product area, will support all mobile standards: HSPA, EDGE, GPRS and GSM. For HSPA, it will offer 7.2Mbps in the downlink and 2Mbps in the uplink. The unit smaller than a credit card, will be included in notebooks by early 2008, Ericsson says.

The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) last week reported rapid uptake in HSDPA and EDGE by cellular network operators. "HSDPA is now commercially available in 53 countries, including 25 of the 27 countries which make up the European Union, as well as in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. At least 29 of these support speeds up to 3.6Mbps," it said. "258 of the worldwide total of 390 commercial GPRS networks have committed to the EDGE enhancement, and 196 networks have commercially launched EDGE in 105 countries."