Japan gets HSPA+ as Motorola tests TD-LTE

Asia's mobile broadband evolution has intensified, with Japanese operator Emobile launching the nation's first HSPA+ network while Motorola trials TD-LTE.

Emobile's new 21.6-Mbps 3G network was installed by Huawei, which will also supply the data cards for the network.

It currently covers cities including Hokkaido, Sendai, Niigata, Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Nagasaki, Huawei said.

Emobile was established in January 2005, and launched services two years ago. The company  currently has around 1.6 million subscribers. Emobile is a subsidiary of ADSL provider eAccess.

Telstra launched the world's first HSPA+ network in February this year.

Meanwhile in China, Motorola has completed an over-the-air trial of TD-LTE technology in co-operation with local operators.

Motorola boasted that it had become the first company to achieve download throughput of up to 70 Mbps on a 20-Mbps channel. The company also successfully trialed mobility and hand-over with live applications and multi-user equipment.

Motorola said it is also conducting TD-LTE trials with China's IT ministry.

“We’ve made significant progress in TD-LTE commercialization as demonstrated by these trials,” said Dr. Mohammad Akhtar, a Motorola China SVP, adding that Motorola was on pace to go to market early with TD-LTE solutions.