Cingular Wireless is one step closer to deploying high-speed downlink packet access technology, having worked with vendor Lucent Technologies to complete its first HSDPA data calls on its UMTS trial network in the Atlanta market.

The HSDPA-enhanced network delivered sustained over-the-air data rates of more than 3 Mb/s in recent tests, according to the companies. Applications run during these tests including video streaming, downloads of large data files and images, and other multimedia services.

Cingular initially plans to deploy HSDPA with a rate goal of 3.6 Mb/s, which is anticipated to be the performance threshold for the first generation of HSDPA handsets. The HSDPA standard is designed to support theoretical bandwidth rates of up to 14.4 Mb/s, and Cingular plans to upgrade speeds as better user devices become available, the company said.

Kris Rinne, CTO of Cingular Wireless, said in a statement, "UMTS/HSDPA delivers a host of operating efficiencies, which also equates to cost savings for our business." Cingular said late last year that it plans to roll out UMTS and HSDPA concurrently, with Lucent as one of the suppliers.

The calls were completed using Lucent's HSDPA-enabled Flexent OneBTS base stations, its Flexent Radio Network Controller, and a UMTS packet core solution that included the Flexent Serving GPRS Support Node, and Gateway GPRS Support Node, along with an HSDPA test terminal. Joe McCarthy, sales vice president at Lucent, said the vendor first demonstrated HSDPA capabilities in 2003.