Also Cellnet and Vodafone are already looking ahead three years or so to the introduction of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephony System), or third-generation (3G) mobile services, which will force down the price of today's GSM technology.
HSCSD, like GPRS, is widely seen as a stopgap technology before operators bid for and then build-out high-speed third-generation (3G) universal mobile telephony service (UMTS) networks. Orange has claimed other European mobile network operators...
Although everyone is talking about evolution to third-generation (3G) networks - via so-called 2.5G technologies (including GPRS, offering higher speed and packet-based data delivery) - like any evolution, not everyone makes the leap.
It's been a big day for third-generation mobile telephony, but are we any closer to the Holy Grail of multimedia handsets and 'always-on' connections? Japan's NTT DoCoMo and then BT's Manx Telecom were tipped to be the first to pop the champagne...
With arguments over the success or failure of 3G raging against the backdrop of a ticking clock everyone wants to know how the next-generation of mobile telephony won't be the biggest business white elephant ever.
The TD-SCDMA standard, which was developed by the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology in collaboration with Datang and Siemens, is designed to help operators move from a second-generation wireless network to a 3G one.