As Need For Mobile Speed Grows, 3.5G Networks Boom

HSPA+ is currently the fastest form of 3G wireless broadband technology, and is generally viewed as the final stop before a migration to Long Term Evolution (LTE). There are 58 live HSPA+ wireless broadband networks across the world, with 19 of them launched in the first half of 2010, according to research by Wireless Intelligence. Another 43 carriers are likely to make this upgrade. HSPA+ is an upgrade to the current generation of 3G technologies, and is also known as Evolved HSPA. It can provide downstream connectivity of up to 84 megabits per second (Mbps) and upstream connections of 21 Mbps. While the most common version of HPSA+ (64QAM) has a top theoretical speed of around 21 Mbps, in some cases, phone companies (like Japan's EMobile) are using different kinds of technology tricks (dual carrier, MIMO) to boost this speed by up to four times.