new battery-saving way to do voice calls

Mobile phones are getting more and more data-oriented, with the internet being commonplace nowadays… but the thing is, most people still use mobile phones for voice calls, most of the time. And it’s voice calls that clog up the network, and make your battery not last very long, according to Nokia-Siemens (who make and install cell towers).

So, according to IntoMobile, they’ve come with a solution. And it’s called CSoHSPA.

Ok, if you say that out loud, it may well sound like Yoda clearing his throat, but what it stands for is ‘Circuit-Switched over HSPA’. Except that doesn’t really tell you much, either, does it? Basically, what it amounts to is, instead of treating voice calls as separate to data, and giving them their own slot in the cell tower, it treats them as just another data call, as a series of data packets, going through the high-speed data signal. Nokia-Siemens are saying that with a simple software upgrade, that would give an increase in battery life, to users’ phones, of up to 50%.

That’s pretty impressive.

Of course, that’s where the market’s going anyway, and when 4G rocks up to the party, everything’s going to be on a data connection, with no dedicated voice slots. So, just maybe, this’ll be the perfect thing to get us all used to phones working that way. I do have to wonder, as well, whether it means that current 3G and HSDPA phones will then be able to use 4G cell towers. If so, then blimey, that’s going to make the rollout of 4G masts so very much easier! Of course, it doesn’t mean you’d be getting 200Mbps internet speeds on your Nokia N97, but it will mean they can get the masts in quicker, without worrying about phones not being able to use them.

Probably not the case, like, but it’s tempting to wonder what life will be like if Nokia-Siemens have already got that in mind…