Vinaphone has successfully employed new technology to allow its 3G connection to have higher data-transfer speeds, the Vietnamese mobile operator announced Wednesday.

The download speed for Vinaphone’s 3G subscribers has been increased to 42Mbps, enabling them to watch HD video clips on their mobile phones with 3G connection, the company said.

The speed increase is done after the state-run telecom giant successfully adopted the DC-HSDPA protocol for its third generation of mobile telecommunications technology.

The DC-HSDPA, or Dual Cell High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, is an enhanced 3G mobile-telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, which allows mobile networks to have higher data-transfer speeds and capacity.

The DC-HSDPA can send the download speeds of 3G connection to up to 42Mbps, whereas the normal speed is 21.6Mbps.

While it used to take a Vinaphone 3G subscriber at least 12 minutes and four seconds to download a 5Gbits movie, the download time is now reduced to two minutes and seven seconds with the 42Mbps connection, according to Vinaphone. (One Gbit equals 125MB.)

With the enhanced speed, subscribers can download as many as eight mp3 songs of 5Mbps quality within only one second, the operator said.

The new 3G download speed is far higher than that of the popular ADSL connection, according to experts.

“Subscribers can download data and use online services at faster speeds than before,” Vinaphone said.

Subscribers of Vinaphone’s 3G services for mobile devices and EZcom 3G for desktops and laptops will benefit from the network upgrade.

The telecom firm is applying the upgraded speed in three major cities, namely Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh.

Vinaphone has targeted to expand the upgrade to 3G subscribers countrywide in early 2015.

It is also working on a project to increase 3G download speeds to 84Mbps in the future.

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