Dell readying HSDPA-equipped notebooks for the US and Europe

Round Rock (TX) - Dell today said that it will begin offering its notebooks with optional integrated High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) wireless broadband capability to its customers in Europe in the first half of 2006. This follows a similar announcement from September, which promised HSDPA to US users for the first quarter of 2006.

Dell’s European HSDPA models will be initially available in France, Germany and the UK. Network access is provided by Vodafone. The access devices planned for the manufacturer’s notebooks will be backwards compatible with UMTS, also known as 3G, as well as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) wireless data networks.

HSDPA, which often goes by the name 3.5G, is seen as a replacement for current GSM networks. The technology runs in the 5 MHz bandwidth and will offer about four times the bandwidth of 3G broadband access, which is defined at 2 Mb/s throughput in fixed locations, Dell promises. The technology is reportedly deployed by several carriers in the US and Europe and could be ready for the mass market between the second and fourth quarter of this year.

Dell announced back in November of 2005 that it will offer HSDPA-equipped notebook computers in the US in the first quarter of this year in conjunction with the already announced HSDPA service from Cingular Wireless. Plans of the firm’s "Broadband Connect" service are currently available for 16 US metropolitan areas and are priced at $60 per month for unlimited data transmission.

With a promised bandwidth of 400 - 700 kb/s, Cingular’s HSDPA service is well below the promised 8 Mbit/s. However, Samsung demonstrated the future capabilities of the technology with a 3.6 Mb/s downlink at this year’s CES tradeshow.

HSDPA competes with the upcoming Mobile Wimax 806.16a technology as well as EV-DO, which is currently offered by Verizon Wireless in the US.