Qualcomm has said that a number of network operators are committed to trialing HSPA+ technology this year.

The mobile technology company said that operators including Hutchison 3G, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Telstra will trial the broadband wireless technology.

HSPA+ is a higher speed upgrade for HSPA supporting up to 28Mbit/s mobile broadband.

“With trials this year, we are on track for commercialization in 2009, giving network operators the added benefit of time-to-market advantage in addition to advanced broadband capabilities,” said Steve Mollenkopf, senior v-p of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

According to Christian Salbaing, managing director at Hutchison 3G Europe: “HSPA+ provides a clear path for us to evolve our existing high-speed networks to provide the best wireless broadband services through increased network capacity and the highest data speeds.”

The HSPA+ trials are expected to take place this year, enabling commercialisation of the technology as early as 2009.

The trials will use Qualcomm’s Mobile Data Modem (MDM) MDM8200 chipset. Features include 64-QAM HSDPA for 21Mbit/s downlink data rates and 2x2 downlink MIMO for 28Mbit/s downlink data rates.

See our guide to the Mobile World Congress which takes place in Barcelona next week.