Voda cranks up mobile data speeds

The world’s biggest operator in terms of revenue, Vodafone, said Thursday that it has successfully trialled mobile broadband at speeds of up to 16Mbps.

The high speed data download peak rates were achieved during field trials of HSPA+ 64QAM technology on Vodafone Spain’s network.

The Big V now said it plans to trial mobile broadband data connections with peak rates of up to 21Mbps early in 2009 using HSPA+ MIMO functionality.

Voda reckons the technology could be capable of delivering a typical video download experience of more than 13Mbps in good conditions and an average of more than 4Mbps across a full range of typical cell locations including urban environments.

Ericsson and Qualcomm provided the kit for Vodafone’s trial. At present, the company offers HSPA data rates of up to 7.2 Mbps to its customers.

In related news, analysts at the Daiwa Institute of Research identified Vodafone as the most exposed player in the European mobile industry, which is described as wide-open to downside risks due to a combination of variable-based revenue, market maturity, adverse regulatory trends and enhanced competition, especially from MVNOs which can “feed” off of current macroeconomic weakness.

European telecoms analyst and sector strategist at Daiwa, Michael Kovacocy, said: “We view integrated, fixed/mobile operators such as Telefonica and KPN a markedly better bet, both due to our belief in an improving backdrop for fixed and their ability to reduce exposure in mobile through a broader proposition set.”