Qualcomm has begun sampling the second installment of its high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) chipset, the MSM6280, which raises the theoretical capacity ceiling for a UMTS network to 7.2 Mb/s.

In December, Qualcomm began sampling its first-generation HSDPA chipset, which supported peak data rates of 1.8 Mb/s. While the new silicon will greatly improve on that downlink throughput, it isn’t Qualcomm’s final stopping point. Future installments of the HSDPA standard are expected to bring theoretical data rates up to 14.4 Mb/s.

The first HSDPA networks are expected to launch next year. Cingular is currently building its UMTS network with HSDPA software already installed and is planning to launch its first handsets powered by a 1.8 Mb/s release chipsets in 2006, allowing the carrier to put more data traffic over its UMTS network.