Telstra announces super-fast mobile broadband world first

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This was published 8 years ago

Telstra announces super-fast mobile broadband world first

By Ben Grubb
Updated

A new mobile device announced by Telstra on Wednesday will theoretically deliver download speeds of up to 600 megabits per second in select areas - up to six times faster than what the Turnbull government's fibre-to-the-node network will be able to deliver under its current design.

The Telstra WiFi 4GX Advanced III mobile broadband hotspot, created by Netgear, is the latest super-fast mobile broadband device to join Telstra's product range and uses "3 band Carrier Aggregation technology".

Telstra was hit by another outage on the last day of the financial year.

Telstra was hit by another outage on the last day of the financial year. Credit: Craig Sillitoe

It will retail for $264 and be available September 29 onwards, however plans and pre-paid data packages for the new device have not yet been announced. It's a sure bet though that they are unlikely to be cheap.

To give some indication of what pricing might look like, one only needs to look at what a Telstra customer pays on a $35 a month plan where they get just 4GB of data.

With the new hotspot, that limit would be blown in about 50 seconds if you were downloading at 600 megabits per second constantly.

Telstra's 4GX Advanced technology means customers will have access to significantly faster peak download speeds and added capacity in the network, according to Telstra. But it doesn't necessarily mean customers will always be able to achieve the theoretical speeds.

In a demonstration on Wednesday morning, a Telstra representative showed download speeds of about 500 megabits per second and upload speeds of 40 megabits per second.

But this was without many people using the network at the same time, which can decrease speeds.

"This is the world's first commercially available Cat 11 experience and is a breakthrough addition to our mobile device," said John Chambers, executive director of mobile at Telstra.

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"... It really is an unbeatable technology that we are pleased to offer our customers before anyone else in the world."

The new hotspot supports up to 15 Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously and has a battery allowing customers to connect to it for up to 11 hours of continuous use.

Only customers in a 4GX enabled areas can achieve the faster speeds, with the device automatically switching between 4GX, 4G and 3G coverage in areas where 4GX is not yet available.

Right now, coverage for the super-fast speeds is limited to the CBD's of eastern seaboard capital cities; initially Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, and in selected popular holiday locations.

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