TOKYO-Vodafone K.K., the Japanese subsidiary of Vodafone Group plc, said Monday it obtained a license from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to conduct field tests for High Speed Downlink Packet Access technology using experimental radio stations. Accordingly, Vodafone K.K. will begin field tests with the aim of offering faster speeds on its third-generation W-CDMA network.
Defined in 3GPP Release 5 specifications, HSDPA technology enables fast packet downlink transmissions of up to 14.4 megabits per second. In accordance with Radio Regulatory Council reports that view the introduction of HSPDA as appropriate, revisions to related laws and regulations are now under way in Japan, the carrier said. Vodafone K.K.’s field test is intended to technically evaluate HSDPA in a real field environment to further commercial implementation.
The field test began Monday and is being conducted in the Tokyo metropolitan area using the 2GHz frequency band.
Vodafone K.K. is trailing rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. in 3G subscriber figures.
