WLAN, 3G Handoff Tests Successful
The mobile phone industry Tuesday heard loud and clear from Nortel and BB Mobile, a Softbank Group company, when the pair announced test calls demonstrating uninterrupted high-speed voice and data sessions. The test calls, completed on a live (UMTS) 3G network and an 802.11 wireless LAN, exhibited a seamless hand-off of voice and data services between a 3G network operating in the 1.7-GHz frequency band and a WLAN, the companies said, claiming the development dials up a new benchmark in convergence.
The field test comes on the heels of last month’s Nortel-BB Mobile trial, which achieved 14.4 million bits per second (Mbps) wireless data transmission using the 1.7-GHz frequency band for mobile communications and Nortel’s high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology to deliver speeds 30 times faster than commercially deployed networks using UMTS, according to the companies. The HSDPA tests were conducted in Tokyo and Saitama prefecture after Japan’s telecoms regulator issued a trial license for W-CDMA in 1.7-GHz spectrum on 30 May. Continue >>