It seems that Three are rather quietly rolling out HSPA+ upgrades to their mobile network, keeping mum about it at the moment. I am not entirely sure why the hush hush, maybe they want to put a bit of a splash on about it later on. So I hope that I'm not stealing their thunder, but this is newsworthy.

In a recent article on the Three Blog about their new Huawei E367 HSPA+ USB Dongle there is a reply to a question raised in the comments section which goes;
HSPA+ covers upto 21.1mbps and HSPA-Advanced is the next evolution beyond that. The E367 is a HSPA+ device rated at upto 21mbps. Our network upgrade to 21.1 is underway and will be completed during the year. However, you will already see benefits over our existing 7.2mbps dongles like the MF112. Our current MiFi product (E585) is also 7.2mpbs capable and this is their maximum theoretical speed. So performance may improve as the network upgrades continue, but the E585 cannot take advantage above 7.2 mbps
There it is, as clear as could be stated, a network upgrade is in progress at this time.

This is exciting stuff. Here is a network that everyone has predicted [since the dawn of time] will go under or be sold off at a massive loss. Yet they continue to confound both opinion and speculation by growing their business into profit and technology to meet the upcoming challenges of the fledgeling LTE deployments anticipated in 2013 onwards. They are also meeting head on any challenge in the HSPA+ space from the other remaining UK network operators. Don't ask me how they're affording to do any of this, by all natural laws they should be a paragraph or two in the history books, but very evidently they are not.

Dismantling the myth
So, what is all of this HSPA+malarky? Doesn't it give speeds upwards of 100Mbps?

HSPA+ has a theoretical speed of up to 168Mbps using multiple carriers. The new Huawei E367 dongle from Three uses multiple ariels to exploit these multiple carriers from the local mast and harvest as much speed as is available at any one time from the local transmitter mast.

But don't get too excited, you will not be seeing anything like three-figure speeds. Three, in common with the rest, are deploying 21Mbps maximum, which is still an almost trebling of the theoretical speed of HSPA (7.2Mbps). And for those with HSPA there may be an improvement seen inasmuch as attaining speeds closer to the 7.2Mbps could occur. At home I am frequently seeing speeds of 5.2Mbps now whereas previously I would be lucky to see much above 1.5Mbps.

There are many factors that will determine how much of this glorious new speed you will achieve. Firstly, much will depend on how far away you are from the local Three transmitter mast. Are any structures in between you and the mast that will attenuate the signal? How many people are accessing the mast at that precise moment? What is the speed of the backhaul circuit from the mast to Three's network? All of these, at least, will have some bearing on the actual performance you will receive.

Is this 4G?
No it is not. The much eluded to 4G is a different airtime technology. What we are seeing here is 3G/HSPA being enhanced into the network speed territory of 4G, but it is not 4G at all. There are plenty of sound and good reasons for doing this kind of development. Typically, when 4G arrives we will see decommissioned 3G/HSPA technology pushed out into the so-called Third World nations. There will be little, if any, waste.

When?
Already the HSPA+ network technology is out in the field. Three are pushing it out further and further across all of their sites in the UK. Their blog says that they will complete the update during the remainder of 2011. Going on recent experience I would say that is completely achievable.

Let us know your experiences with Three's network speeds in your area. Have they improved of late? Have you experienced any recent downtime followed by improved signal quality and speed? Do tell.