Firms Demo GSM PrototypesFirms Demo GSM Prototypes

Preparing for the upcoming 3GSM 2006 trade show in Barcelona, companies backing the European GSM cell phone standard have reported successful completion of demonstrations that have reached speeds of 3.6Mbps.

Motorola reported Wednesday that with co-developer NTT DoCoMo it has successfully created a high-speed downlink High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) prototype that can operate on global WCDMA networks.

The day before, Novatel Wireless reported that it had developed an HSDPA PC Card Modem, the Merlin U870, for use in global WCDMA.

The Merlin card operates on 800, 1900, and 2100 MHz bands popular in the U.S. and Europe and is backward compatible with many existing data network technologies including UMTS, EDGE, and GPRS.

Motorola said it is prepared to undertake Interoperability Test partnering with other carriers and vendors.