Europe : Nortel and LG Electronics have completed the industry's first live test calls using a commercial handset solution for the emerging broadband wireless technology, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

The companies have demonstrated real-world experiences of 'supercharged' broadband services that can help wireless operators generate new revenues through high-resolution interactive gaming, multimedia music downloads, DVD-quality film and video, Mobile TV, 'push-to-watch' services, and access to large e-mail attachments.

"Based on the success of our interoperability program, I expect Nortel to be the first to market with a complete, end-to-end HSDPA solution with integrated consumer devices," said Peter MacKinnon ( inset ), president, GSM/UMTS, Nortel. "Our recent string of industry firsts and technology milestones continues to prove our leadership in HSDPA and other emerging broadband wireless technologies."

"LG Electronics is proud to achieve this milestone with Nortel, and to drive the industry forward in delivering true broadband mobile services to end users," said Skott Ahn, executive vice president, LG Electronics. "This practical demonstration is a big step forward towards the realization of commercial HSDPA services and an important validation of the enhanced performance HSDPA will bring to carriers."

The companies completed drive calls using commercially-available UMTS network infrastructure from Nortel and an LG HSDPA handset slated for commercial availability in late 2005. Downloads of pop music songs and three-minute streaming movie clips (the LG device served as a modem to a PC screen) were completed in a moving automobile to demonstrate real-world stability at speeds up to 1.4 megabits per second (mbps).

By making more efficient use of the existing network and boosting throughput, HSDPA significantly reduces operating costs while delivering a better end user experience. HSDPA boosts network capacity to carry up-to-three times as much data traffic and up to twice as many wireless users per cell site compared to today's UMTS networks. HSDPA speeds network throughput to five times faster than today's commercial third generation (3G) networks to deliver broadband services comparable to DSL or ADSL.

Nortel recently announced a series of industry milestones with leading chipset and data card vendors, and is working with a number of global operators, including mmO2, on HSDPA trials and deployments in 2005.

Nortel has demonstrated the maximum data speed enabled by HSDPA -- 14.4 mbps -- on commercially-available equipment including its UMTS Base Transceiver stations and UMTS Radio Network Controller, along with terminals supplied by Ubinetics. Nortel's equipment is designed to be HSDPA-ready and to cost-effectively upgrade to support HSDPA through a simple software installation.