WCDMA does not use the same principle as GSM with terminal class mark. WCDMA terminals shall tell the network, upon connection set-up, a larger set of parameters indicating the radio access capabilities of the particular terminal. These capabilities determine, for example, the maximum user data rate supported in a particular radio configuration, given independently for the uplink and downlink directions. To provide guidance on which capabilities should be applied together, reference terminal radio access capability combinations have been specified in 3GPP standardisation. The following reference combinations have been defined for 3GPP Release ’99:

- 32 kbps class. This is intended to provide a basic speech service, including AMR speech as well as some limited data rate capabilities up to 32 kbps.

- 64 kbps class. This is intended to provide a speech and data service, with simultaneous data and AMR speech capability.

- 144 kbps class. This class has the air interface capability to provide, for example, video telephony or various other data services.

- 384 kbps class is being further enhanced from 144 kbps and has, for example, multicode capability, which points toward support of advanced packet data methods provided in WCDMA.

- 768 kbps class has been defined as an intermediate step between 384 kbps and 2 Mbps

class.

 

- 2 Mbps class. This is the state-of-the-art class and has been defined for the downlink direction only.

These classes are defined so that a higher class has all the capabilities covered by a lower class. It should be noted that terminals may deviate from these classes when giving their parameters to the network, thus 2 Mbps is possible for the uplink also, though not covered by any of the classes directly. 3GPP specifications include performance requirements for the bit rates up to 384 kbps.  Therefore, it is expected that terminals up to 384 kbps will be available in the initial deployment phase. High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, HSDPA, further enhances the WCDMA bit rate capabilities. HSDPA terminal capabilities are defined in 3GPP Release 5 and extend beyond 10 Mbps. HSDPA is covered in detail in my other post.

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very useful info. need more detail.