Vodafone kicks off 14.4Mbps HSDPA upgrade in UK
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Aug 28th 2009 11:35AM
posted Aug 28th 2009 11:35AM
HSPA+ is the ultimate in pre-LTE wireless standards -- but before Vodafone UK gets there, it wants to take plain ol' HSPA just as far as it'll go by pushing downlink speeds all the way to 14.4Mbps. Great Britain's largest operator has announced that it has already flipped the switch on 14.4 in parts of London, Birmingham, and Liverpool, with the remainder of Her Majesty's Royal Network being bumped "on an ongoing basis." This puts rivals Orange, O2, and 3 in a bit of a crunch since they're just now in the process of rolling out 7.2, but then again, putting equipment in customers' hands to take advantage of the higher speeds is really the biggest challenge; otherwise, it's little more than a chest-puffing competition for these guys. At any rate, it makes you wonder about AT&T's claims that 14.4Mbps HSDPA had technical issues, doesn't it?
Yes, but what's the frequency..., Kenneth?
"This puts rivals Orange, O2, and 3 in a bit of a crunch since they're just now in the process of rolling out 7.2, but then again,"
If my experiences of O2 in London are anything to go by, they're struggling to roll out smoke signals, let alone HSPA.
haha
And that is the truth. O2's HSDPA network is terrible, honestly. Almost makes the iPhone 3GS and 3G capabilities irrelevant since you can't ever use them properly.
AT&T hasn't even rolled out their 7.2Mbps nationwide here in the States, plus they artificially cap the speed you can download on any device to about 1-2Mbps anyway.
That's not an artificial cap...that is called lack of backhaul.
AT&T's HSPA vendor had issues with 14.4 :P (hmm isn't that Lucent?)
In Portugal , Vodafone already have 22 Mbps
Vodafone only operate at 53.6kbps in AUSTRALIA! What a Joke!
It's only going to get worse now that they teamed up with three.
This is WRONG.
Vodafone Australia supports 7.2Mbit HSPA on their 900MHz 3G network.
They support 3.6Mbps on their 2100MHz 3G network.
Vodafone Australia also supports 236kbps on their 900MHz EDGE network outside of the cities.
Real world Vodafone speeds exceed that of Optus and Hutchison 3. Telstra's 21Mbit HSPA network is the undisputed speed and coverage king in Australia.