LG Electronics picks Ericsson for HSPA modules

by Jeff Orr, Editor
Mobile Broadband News

Ericsson announced today that it has been selected by LG Electronics to provide mobile broadband modules based on high speed packet access (HSPA). LG Electronics notebooks and netbooks will include the modules starting in Q3 2008.

Ericsson developed its own HSPA chipset technology, based on a collection of mobile telephony protocols that extend and improve the performance of existing UMTS protocols. Two standards, HSDPA and HSUPA, have been established by ETSI and a further standard, HSPA+, is soon to be released.

“We are excited to work with LG Electronics to give consumers and business users the freedom and flexibility to access internet in the way they want it, wherever they are,” says Mats Norin, vice president, mobile broadband modules, Ericsson. “Ericsson is also very pleased to be selected to provide mobile broadband modules to LG Electronics’ netbooks which is a segment that is forecasted to grow fast”

HSDPA provides improved theoretical downlink performance of up to 14.4 Mbps. Existing deployments provide up to 7.2 Mbps in downlink. Up-link performance is a maximum of 384 kbps. HSUPA provides improved up-link performance of up to 5.76 Mbps theoretically. Real-world deployments of HSPA networks are offering up to ~1 Mbps in the downlink to each user, which is expected to increase over time as competitive offerings drive the demand for capacity higher.