Telstra Notches up World Record for Next G Network

By Greg McNevin

February 18, 2009: Telstra has made a splash at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with the announcement that its national mobile broadband network is the world’s fastest according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo unveiled the carrier’s new Turbo 21 modem at the event, which can offer 21Mbps peak transfer rates over its Next G network – that’s roughly four times faster than what is currently available from other telcos.

Of course, due to a lack of compatible devices and depending on location and network load, real world conditions in capital cities and some select regional locations will see speeds of 550 Kbps to 8 Mbps, however, Telstra claims that new devices that will take advantage of the technology are on the way, as are further improvements.

Telstra’s Networks and Services Group Managing Director Michael Rocca saying that peak downlink speeds will also increase to 42 Mbps on parts of the network later this year.

Business customers will be take advantage of the new 21Mbps Next G network from February 23, while consumers will have access to the new technology from April onwards.

When launched, Trujillo says that users will be able to download a 2MB file in as little as six seconds. He also adds that the new network will be national from the start and not upgraded in dribs and drabs. "We won't be going city by city or base station by base station, it will go nationwide,'' he said.

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