Maemo is the platform used in the Finnish manufacturer's Internet-tablet series, the latest iteration of which was the the N810. On Wednesday, Nokia's open source chief Dr Ari Jaaksi told the audience at an Open Source In Mobile (OSIM) event in Berlin that Maemo 5 would include support for high-speed packet access (HSPA), a standard sometimes described as 'super-3G'.

The operating systems in existing N800-series tablets only allow voice calls through VoIP applications and Wi-Fi, rather than natively supporting cellular connectivity. A mobile device supporting cellular connectivity would be able to link directly to mobile-phone networks.

Nokia recently upgraded its membership of the Linux Foundation from 'Silver' to 'Gold' status, and has contributed to the Linux kernel code for using HSPA with Texas Instruments' OMAP3 processor--itself another element that will gain newfound support in Maemo 5.