Sierra's 21Mbps modems for Next G coming soon

Stuart Corner
Friday, 13 February 2009 04:00

IT Industry - Market

Sierra Wireless has launched what it claims is the  first mobile broadband USB modems for HSPA+ networks, capable of supporting peak download speeds of 21Mbps and uplink at 5.76Mbps.

Sierra is one of the main modem suppliers to Next G which was upgraded to 21Mbps late last year. Telstra appears to be set to launch commercial services exploiting this upgrade next week. On 17 February in Sydney BigPond is holding a press conference that it promises will make Australia "the fastest address in the World" and will "cement Australia as a global leader in telecommunications."

Telstra gave the first demonstration of 21Mbps HSPA+ on Next G using Sierra modems at its investor day briefing on November 6 last year.

However Sierra is not promising commercial availability of its products until some time "within the first half of this year." Sierra has announced two products: the USB 306 is designed for North American and Asia-Pacific regions, operating on the Next G band of 850MHz and the 1900 and 2100MHz bands; and the USB 307 optimised for Europe, operating on the 900MHz and 2100MHz bands.

Both will come with Sierra's TRU-Install that loads the device drivers and Sierra Wireless Watcher connection manager software onto the computer from the modem the first time it is plugged in. Both models are also equipped with a microSD card slot to provide  storage and assist with file transfers on-the-go.

Both will support peak downlink at 21Mbps and uplink at 5.76Mbps with backward compatibility to HSPA, UMTS, EDGE, and GPRS networks. The USB 306 will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress, to be held in Barcelona from February 16 to 19.

Huawei also touting 21Mbps HSPA devices
Meanwhile, Huawei appears to be neck and neck with Sierra. It announced in December "the world's first commercial ready HSPA+ [21Mbps] devices," on PCCW's network in Hong Kong and said that "Huawei's HSPA+ [network equipment] and HSPA+ mobile broadband terminal E182E will be ready for full commercial use [on PCCW's network] in the early part of 2009."

Beyond 21Mbps: Ericsson demos 42Mbps
Ericsson, network supplier to Next G, is promising to stage, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, the first-ever demonstration of the new HSPA multicarrier technology capable of delivering peak downlink data rates of 42Mbps.

42Mbps is achieved by the simultaneous use of two channels (which of course means it consumes double the network capacity of the slower technology). Ericsson says that it "doubles the user data rate in the coverage area of an HSPA network and on the cell edge, where consumers normally experience lower data rates. As a result the peak downlink data rate increases from today's fastest available 21Mbps to 42Mbps. This significantly improves the consumer experience for online services with high-quality content.

The demonstration will use an Ericsson mobile broadband router as the user device. Ericson says this enables "the high data rates of up to 42Mbps [to be] shared between multiple consumers, providing efficient use of the high-speed broadband connection. Ericsson expects its HSPA multicarrier technology to be ready for commercial implementation by the end of 2009, a timeframe by which Telstra has indicated it will upgrade Next G to 42Mbps.