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Starhub to push HSPA to 42 megabits in 2010
17 November 2009
Singapore’s Starhub plans to double mobile broadband peak speeds to 42 megabits by 2010, deferring the likely date for the introduction of LTE services to 2012-13
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[Starhub]
[Singapore]
[HSPA+]
[3G]
[4G]
[LTE]
Comment: Enthusiasm for LTE is going through phases. Some are pushing for it with all their energy. Others see that HSPA+ still has more to offer, with terminal equipment that is already on the market — while the industry will wait till 2011 or beyond for LTE terminals
Singapore mobile operator Starhub is aiming at doubling the peak speed of its HSPA+ mobile broadband network to 42 megabits a second in 2010.
The company, whose infrastructure is built by Huawei, has been steadily increasing its HSPA+ speeds since the service was launched in 2007 at 7.2 megabits, first to 14.4 megs and then to today’s peak of 21 megs.
The rate will be one of the fastest in the world — though Telstra in Australia is also planning to offer 42 megabits on its Ericsson-powered network in 2010.
Starhub — and Telstra — will be able to increase the speeds without significant extra capital investment, as both use base stations whose speed and characteristics are controlled by software.
That feature could delay Starhub’s launch of LTE until 2012 or 2013, said Peter Cook, vice president of the company’s mobile operations, though “there will probably be small trials before that”.
Another reason for delaying LTE is that Singapore still has a significant demand for 2G services, representing 30% of Starhub’s user base — largely migrant workers needing cheap ways to phone home or foreign visitors who are roaming onto the local network.
The software defined base stations will be able to work with 2G, 3G and LTE at the same time, but Starhub will need to manage its spectrum across the different services, said Cook. LTE, when it comes, will use spectrum more efficiently.
“We hope to get 2G off the network by 2015,” he added. “Half of our voice traffic is still 2G.” GTB
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