Changes

HSOPA uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology to support up to 10 times as many users as W-CDMA based systems, with lower processing power required on each handset.[1]. Still in development, experimental performance is 37 Mbit/s in the downlink over a 5 MHz channel, close to the theoretical maximum of 40 Mbit/s.

While both WiMAX and the HSOPA use OFDM/OFDMA, HSOPA enhanced UMTS will most likely be optimized for wide area mobile voice communications. HSOPA will use OFDMA for the down-link and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) for the up-link. WiMAX/802.16e-2005 uses OFDMA for both the up and down links.