Upon returning from the Old Continent, I had some time to ponder about some of the advancements in the wireless arena that I witnessed over there this year.  One theme that was certainly prevalent at 3GSM (besides IMS) was HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access).  It is not surprising to see history repeat itself: the wireless industry often seems to be rushing towards the next technological quantum leap before the earlier generation has been commercially deployed, and HSDPA is no exception to this rule. 

HSDPA is only a software upgrade, more like the EDGE upgrade from GPRS, while providing download rates of 2–3Mbps and utilizing the spectrum much more efficiently.  That said, one still needs terminals and services to ultimately benefit from the higher throughput, otherwise it will be of very limited use.  I suspect we will be seeing some handsets in the next edition of the 3GSM show in Barcelona in February 2006.

Blogging is light while I travel through Europe, and being done with Romania, my next stop is France (near Nice).  I cannot remember what I was looking for during some downtime in the airport (flew DBA from Frankfurt to Nice), but I found this hacker's guide on how to convert a mobile handset into a "cell desk phone".  It just reminded me of my hacker days at MIT, so I thought maybe this could be yet another category in this blog. 

Unrelated note: the airline industry in Germany is deregulated, allowing all sorts of great last minute deals, such as flights like the one I took (which sometimes can cost less than a train ride).  Something to keep in mind on your next Euro trip (for a conference such as 3GSM).