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Early February, Siemens broke new ground in successfully demonstrating the data transfer via an HSDPA network to a notebook with an HSDPA card in its PCMCIA slot . HSDPA - High Speed Downlink Packet Access - is the next step in the evolution of 3G W-CDMA/UMTS. The HSDPA-capable Node B 880, a product of the third g eneration of the Siemens/NEC 3G W-CDMA base stations, transferred data to a notebook at a speed of almost two m egabits per second. With this success, Siemens was one of the first HSDPA suppliers to demonstrate the new data turbo live with a PC card at the 3GSM World Congress 2005. The HSDPA end-to-end solution from Siemens will be available for commercial use as second half of 2005.

"For the end customer, this will mean HSDPA with significantly enhanced service quality. For example, performance will be improved for downloading, internet access and accessing corporate networks," comments Christoph Caselitz, President of Mobile Networks at Siemens Communications. "Bringing an HSDPA end-to-end solution with a compact PC data card onto the market ahead of the field allows us to further consolidate our p osition as a leading provider in the 3G sector."

The HSDPA data card for notebooks will be available in two versions with different W-CDMA frequencies, thus enabling it to be used in the W-CDMA network in both the U.S.A. and Europe . In addition, the card is equipped with quadband technology and is therefore suitable for use in all GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks around the world. The card is based on Data Suite software and supports simple plug-and-play functionality with the Windows operating systems Windows 2000 and Windows XP.