T-Mobile USA and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) are backing an HSPA-based technology that they claim could match the peak-rate data speeds promised by LTE Advanced. The companies want to see Long Term HSPA Evolution, which they say could achieve peak-rate data speeds of 650Mb/s, adopted as a standard. Their aim is to see the technology commercially deployed by 2013. The “key features” of Long Term HSPA Evolution were accepted during the plenary meeting of 3GPP RAN held on 7-10 December, according to the two companies. “We strongly believe in continued HSPA evolution in parallel to the further development of LTE and LTE Advanced,” said Neville Ray (pictured), CTO at T-Mobile USA. Long Term HSPA Evolution would allow T-Mobile USA to squeeze more life out of its existing infrastructure. T-Mobile has courted controversy with a marketing campaign in the US that claims its existing HSPA+-based service is “4G”.

Back in October, the ITU declared LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced as official 4G technologies, which means even the likes of Verizon Wireless – with its recently launched  LTE network – is not officially offering 4G. However, adding a new layer of complexity to proceedings, analyst Philis Solis of ABI Research refers in a blog to an ITU press release from last week that, in passing, says 4G “may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies, LTE and WiMAX, and to other evolved 3G technologies providing a substantial level of improvement in performance and capabilities with respect to the initial third generation systems now deployed.”