With mobile broadband having become more popular than anyone would've been able to predict, the network operators are now getting ready for the next evolution in mobile broadband technology, HSPA Evolved or HSPA+ as it's also known as, which is promising speeds of up to 21Mbit/s and that's just for starters.

Sweden will be the first country to offer the new 21Mbit/s service to consumers with 3 most likely being the first network to offer this kind of speed in the major cities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö with availability sometime in Q1 2009. Tele 2 is also expected to follow suit with a launch in Q1 2009, although no specific details of their service has been revealed as yet.

Telstra in Australia is also working on 21Mbit/s mobile broadband, although as Telstra is using the 850MHz band rather than the 2,100MHz band which is used in Europe, the reach of the base stations in Australia should be significantly better. Telstra's network is already working on 14.4Mbit/s but as there are no modems available for speeds faster than 7.2Mbit/s today, this technology will be superseded before it's even become commercially available.

HSPA Evolved will be software upgradable to 28Mbit/s at a later stage, most likely in late 2009 with new hardware in the base stations to follow in 2010 that will allow for speeds of up to 48Mbit/s. This is indeed great news for mobile workers and it might even allow some users to get rid of their ADSL/Cable modem connection at home and save some money, as these new mobile broadband options are offering more than competitive speeds.