The recent announcements from mobile operators 3 and Vodafone of their intentions to increase mobile download speeds to around 10 times that available when the first 3G services launched in 2003 should have grabbed the attention of wired broadband providers.

Maybe the fact that mobile WiMax trials are due to start later this year has caused operators to roll out faster connectivity more quickly than was originally expected.

Whatever the reason, three of the big mobile operators – T-Mobile along with 3 and Vodafone – should have introduced High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology by the end of this year, at least to some of their customers. Of course, cynics may point to the high cost of downloading data once the “fair usage” limit is breached, and the sometimes patchy service, but speeds anywhere between 3-5Mbit/s on the downlink side and 1.5Mbit/s on the uplink side are not to be sniffed at.