Vodafone launches 'fastest' wireless data service

Communications giant Vodafone will launch a wireless mobile data transmission service with speeds of up to 7.2 MBits/s in Germany on Thursday.

The company announced the high speed wi-fi download capability at the CeBIT technology fair in Hannover on Wednesday. The technology will allow high speed mobile transmission of large data volumes for Vodafone's German customers.

Based on HSDPA technology, the company claims the upload speed of up to 1.45 MBits/second tops fixed DSL lines. The technology works over the existing 3G network in Germany according to a Vodafone.de spokeswoman, and will be rolled out tomorrow in all of the major German cities.

Currently the fastest wi-fi mobile broadband download speed available in the UK is 1.8Mbits/second using HSDPA. Vodafone UK could not comment at the time of writing whether there would be a UK rollout of the technology.