Etisalat to upgrade to HSDPA+

AMEinfo reports that UAE incumbent Etisalat will upgrade its mobile network to HSDPA+ technology next year, enabling download speeds of up to 42Mbps. The upgrade should be completed by the second or third quarter of 2009, according to Marwan Mohammed Al Qadi, a marketing manager at the telco. He expects customers to use HSDPA+ for downloading movies, music, watching TV as well as for services net surfing and e-mail. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, Etisalat first introduced 3G W-CDMA services in December 2003, upgrading to HSDPA two years later, and had an estimated 2.2 million 3G users midway through 2008.