Not to be out done, straight after AT&T’s announcement to expand their 3G network in 08, Qualcomm also reveal they are to run trials over the 3G to 4G technology HSPA+ during 08. Said trials are to be carried out on Telecom Italia, Telstra, and Hutchison 3G which should speed commercialisation of HSPA+.

Senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies Steve Mollenkopf said of the commercialisation aimed for in 2009, “HSPA+ provides a highly efficient path for network operators to provide next-generation wireless services with their existing networks.”

It is the intention of Qualcomm to trial their own Mobile Data modem MDM8200 chipset, while 64-QAM HSPDA delivers 21Mbps downlink, and 2×2 MIMO at 28 Mbps downlink. All this leads to AT&T probably bringing out their HSPA+ network in the near rather than far future. A full press release can be found at the source.

Source — mobileburn