CES 2006

One of the major developments of the last year was Cingular's introduction of HSDPA high-speed network in 16 metropolitan areas. The coverage should expand in 2006 and hit 100 markets by the end of 2006. The current speeds of HSDPA hover about 300-700 kbps or about the same as Verizon's and Sprint's EVDO networks. Yet, during CES Cingular demonstrated HSDPA speeds of about 3.6 Mbps. Currently, HSDPA could be used only via laptop cards, but the carrier should soon introduce the ZX10 UMTS phone, and later the ZX20 HSDPA one. More and more UMTS/HSDPA devices will follow.

The other emerging new technology is Digital broadcasting. As pointed out in the CES coverage, Verizon Wireless is expected to launch Qualcomms's MediaFlo real-time mobile TV solution. Since Digital Broacasting runs on a separate than the cellular network, each carrier can choose different technology. It is expected though that GSM carriers will prefer the DVB-H competing technology, while CDMA carriers will opt for the Qualcomm's MediaFlo.

Interesting development is the use of Wi-Fi and UMA technology in handsets to offer hand-over between cellular and VoIP networks. Samsung T709 will be one of the first such phones.

Bluetooth is gaining more and more popularity and even mid-range phones now have it. Phone displays are getting larger, with support for more colors. Camera resolutions are steadily increasing with most devices shipping with 1.3 mega pixel ones.

That's all folks. Expect our report and hands-on from 3GSM (Feb 13-16) in Barcelona.