Samsung, which has been working since 2003 on a 3-way project with Vodafone and Qualcomm to bring high-speed, affordable wireless access to the market, has now developed the first commercially available packet-access HSDPA-enabled phone. It is to be launched exclusively for British-based Vodafone and Samsung plans to demonstrate the technology next week in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

In its early stages 3.5G HSDPA technology will offer Vodafone subscribers video and voice data transfer speeds of 1.6Mbps.

No financial details of the arrangement between Samsung and Vodafone have been released. If all goes well with the first phase, then as the technology is tested and optimized, speeds up to 7-14 Mbps will become possible: enabling users to download a two hour-long motion picture within two minutes. It is expected to be fully commercialized in Europe during 2006.