Hong Kong's SmarTone-Vodafone has upgraded its HSDPA service, doubling the downlink speed from 1.8Mbps to 3.6Mbps.
In a statement, the carrier said the link upgrade applied to SmarTone-Vodafone's entire network across Hong Kong , the first upgrade since the HSDPA service was launched in June.
According to the carrier, it planned to upgrade speeds to the full 14.4Mbps supported by the current version of HSDPA over the next two years.
SmarTone-Vodafone also launched what it claimed as the world's first 3G/HSDPA roaming service to the US , which covered 16 states where HSDPA coverage was available, including the West coast, select Northeast states, and Texas.
The mobile operator continues to position HSDPA as a nomadic wireless broadband solution for laptops rather than a handset-based service, due largely to the lack of HSDPA-capable handsets.
Users currently can use a PC card terminal or a Fujitsu laptop with an embedded HSDPA modem. A USB modem is also due to hit the market shortly, according to SmarTone-Vodafone chief Douglas Li.
Li said SmarTone-Vodafone had signed on a little more than 3,000 PC card users since the service's June launch, adding that HSDPA handset options were being evaluated.