HSPA stands for High Speed Packet Access and is the generic term for HSDPA and HSUPA. This is a data transmission standard and an extension of the UMTS mobile phone standard.
HSDPA stands for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access and refers to the download speed. It belongs to the third generation internet standard, also called 3G+, 3.5G or UMTS broadband. With HSDPA, a download speed of 14.4 Mbit/s can be achieved. Due to shorter download times and faster page loading, mobile surfing has become much more comfortable for users with the introduction of HSDPA.
HSUPA is the abbreviation for High-Speed Uplink Packet Access and is the data transmission speed in upload. Here it offers a speed of up to 5.8 Mbit/s. While the faster download of data made a real difference in mobile surfing, the faster upload of data was not quite as important for end users. Only when it came to sending larger amounts of data, such as photos, did the increased data rates become noticeable.
Among other things, the HSDPA and HSUPA enhancements made DSL-like data rates possible for mobile surfing for the first time.
With HSPA+, the further development of HSPA has arrived. It provides higher bandwidths than its predecessor. Up to 28 Mbit/s download speed is possible here. HSPA+ itself is technically considered the predecessor of LTE.
