(High Speed Packet Access) A family of high-speed 3G digital data services available to GSM carriers worldwide. The service works with HSPA cellphones as well as laptops and portable devices with HSPA modems. Although based on WCDMA, HSPA is a major enhancement with more channels and different modulation and coding techniques. In addition, HSPA can recover faster from errors than WCDMA (see HARQ). HSPA was deployed in 2005, starting with HSDPA in the U.S. (see chart below).
HSPA+, also called "I-HSPA" and "HSPA Evolved," supports one or two antennas (see MIMO). Following are the HSPA versions along with WCDMA and LTE for comparison. See LTE, 3GPP, cellular generations, cellular vs. Wi-Fi, WCDMA, TDMA and GSM.
Maximum Maximum
Downlink Uplink
Type Speed Speed
(Modulation method in parentheses.)
3G TECHNOLOGIES (UMTS)
Wideband CDMA
WCDMA 384 Kbps (QPSK) 384 Kbps (QPSK)
HS Downlink PA/3GPP Release 5
HSDPA 14.4 Mbps (16QAM) 384 Kbps (QPSK)
HS Uplink PA/3GPP Release 6
HSUPA 14.4 Mbps (16QAM) 5.7 Mbps (QPSK)
HSPA+/3GPP Release 7
Non-MIMO 14 Mbps (16QAM) 5.8 Mbps (QPSK)
Non-MIMO 21 Mbps (64QAM) 11.0 Mbps (16QAM)
MIMO 28 Mbps (16QAM) 5.8 Mbps (QPSK)
11.0 Mbps (16QAM)
HSPA+/3GPP Release 8
MIMO 42 Mbps (64QAM) same as Release 7
LTE/3GPP Release 8
115 Mbps (16QAM) 58 Mbps (16QAM)
173 Mbps (64QAM) 86 Mbps (64QAM)
4G TECHNOLOGY (see LTE)
LTE-A/3GPP Release 10
1 Gbps
If an iPhone 3G is in range of a 3G cell tower, it uses the higher speed of HSDPA. However, it throttles down to the lower-speed EDGE (E) channel if a 3G HSDPA channel is not available. See
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