3GPP Considering Rapid Expansion of HSPA Speed - Extending the Life of HSPA Networks

Mobile Broadband innovation continues as 3GPP accepted proposals earlier this month to boost the performance of HSPA to over 650 Mbps. This approach is to be called HSPA Release 11 and, somewhat confusingly, Long Term HSPA Evolution. The proposed standard will allow HSPA operators to continue to use their current radio infrastructure, networks, services, back-end systems and subscriber devices at ever increasing speeds. From a capacity perspective, this is great news for the radio interface... but it will continue to drive (along with LTE) the need for new approaches to efficiently backhaul this traffic. Expanded capacity in HSPA networks will further drive innovation in new applications, content and devices, all of which will require sophisticated traffic optimization to keep costs down and improve the user experience.