The eyes of the world were on Beijing last Friday, as China opened the 2008 Summer Olympic Games with an unprecedented mix of pageantry and technology. But beyond the Bird’s Nest stadium, another communications marvel made a splash of its own as Top Global launched the world’s first time-division high-speed packet-access (TD-HSPA) router during the ceremonies.
As hundreds of thousands of athletes, officials, dignitaries, and spectators descended upon the ancient city for the games, Top Global’s mobile routers provided them with network connectivity to bank ATMs and to information and payment kiosks, increasing efficiency and safety during these visitors’ time in Beijing.
The company’s flexible MobileBridge platform serves as a gateway/router that links third-generation (3G) cellular network and Wi-Fi and local-area networks (LANs). Time-division synchronous code-division multiple-access (TD-SCDMA) is a 3G mobile telecommunication standard being pursued in China. TD-HSPA is the high-speed data evolution of TD-SCDMA, reaching 2.8 Mbits/s at peak speed.
Top Global’s MB8000, MB6800, and MB5000 routers all support TD-HSPA. According to the company, they provide ease of deployment and expansion, offering instant connectivity anywhere. Top Global also says they provide flexibility and portability, with plug-and-play functionality for network access during off-site meetings and events. These routers are faster than China’s current GPRS/CDMA 1x network. And, they can seamlessly migrate from 2G to 3G TD-HSPA through a firmware upgrade.
China comprises 25% of the world’s handset market, and its demand for mobile data access service to support digital signage, mobile advertisements, narrow-casting, ATMs and other kiosks, point-of-sale processing, telematics, machine-to-machine industrial applications, telemedicine, and other applications is only going to increase. Top Global believes its routers can support end-to-end solutions for all of these technologies.
Top Global