The GSM Association announced at the 3GSM World Congress Asia in Singapore that it has published guidelines prescribing a common approach for PC manufacturers to fully integrate HDSPA into their product ranges.
The news comes after an announcement from the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, at which the GSMA and chip vendor Intel led an industry-wide initiative to facilitate and drive the adoption of mobile broadband in notebooks.
"As the roll-out of HSDPA accelerates rapidly across the world, 3G broadband enabled notebooks with embedded, seamless connectivity will give customers the opportunity to enjoy the many benefits of a multi-communications device with global mobility and secure authentication," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSMA.
Participants in the initiative include leading cellcos such as Cingular Wireless, O2, Orange, TeliaSonera, TIM, T-Mobile and Vodafone as well as major notebook manufacturers and software vendors Check Point, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Gemalto, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Option Wireless, Novatel Wireless, Qualcomm, Sierra Wireless, Sony and Sony Ericsson.
According to the GSMA, there are currently 123 commercial W-CDMA networks live in 55 countries, of which more than half are HSDPA-enabled across 40 countries. In total, 121 networks have committed to deploying HSDPA.