Peak download speed is 1.8Mbps and Vodafone claims users will experience typically between 600kbps and 1.4Mbps. Upload speed is 384kbps, three times faster than the current 3G data service. However effective throughput will exceed these speeds for some types of data thanks to the use of compression and optimisation techniques built into the software client, Vodafone Mobile Connect, that supports the service.

Vodafone is squarely targeting small and medium business describing the service as "a key plank of our business strategy" and says that the initial service area will cover 45 percent of its business customers.

Dave McNaughton, Vodafone's head of business products, claimed the new service, which has been on limited trial for several weeks with customers on Sydney's lower North Shore, would get an enthusiastic reception from business customers.

"We saw a huge step change in mobile workforce behaviour with the introduction of the 3G data service [just on a year ago]. Businesses untethered their laptops big time. Customers are lapping up the new service and talking about mobilising their whole work force," McNaughton siaid. "We are at a tipping point." He added that the increase in download speed was being welcomed as much as the increase in upload speed.

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However similar speeds have been available from iBurst for well over a year and currently in a wider area than Vodafone's new HSDPA service. The Vodafone service, however, has the advantage of providing connectivity, albeit at lower speeds, anywhere where there is GSM coverage and of providing overseas roaming.

The service has been rolled out so far only on Vodafone's own base stations, not those it shares with Optus. Plans are to extend coverage to the Brisbane CBD by March 07 and to the Sunshine Coast by the same date. Beyond that, McNaughton said the HSDPA rollout would eventually follow the rollout of 3G services.

The service launches with a PCMCIA card, the Huawei E620 for $2999. A USB modem, the Huawei E220, will be available on 1 November and Lenovo laptops the R60, T60, X60 and Z61 and the HP Compaq 64000 ship with inbuilt HSDPA modems. The PCMCIA modem is also available with the Linksys wireless router, introduced some time ago  to enable a workgroup to share a Vodafone 3G data service.

There are three plans: $29.95 per month with 100Mbytes of data; $49.95 per month for 300Mbytes and $99.95 per month for1Gbyte. Excess data is charged at 30 cents per Mbyte and data when roaming overseas at one cent per kilobyte. Customers can switch between plans at any time.

To encourage existing VMC data card customers to migrate to HSDPA, Vodafone is offerings a $70 discount on the HSDPA data card and during November and December 2006, two months free data access to new customers who subscribe to the $99.95 (1GB) data service.

Vodafone Australia is the eighth Vodafone company to launch HSDPA. The upgrade to the 3G network is being provide by Nokia under an extension to its contract to roll out Vodafone's 3G network.