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WORLD FIRST: Mobile broadband boost puts Australia on top of the world
Media Release 30 August 2010
Prev - Next Australia's fastest mobile broadband modem - The Telstra Ultimate USB Download Hi-res JPG (290KB) The Telstra Ultimate USB modem side view Download Hi-res JPG (427KB) The Telstra Ultimate USB delivers typical download speeds of up to 20Mbps Download Hi-res JPG (737KB) Three generations of mobile broadband device from Telstra Download Hi-res JPG (413KB)
Pricing and availability for business customers
* Capital CBD's means within 5km from the GPO in each capital city. Outside the selected areas, the remaining metropolitan areas of all capitals cities and many other regional and rural locations support typical download speeds from 550kbps to 8Mbps, and elsewhere typical speeds are from 550kbps to 3Mbps. Actual speeds vary due to factors such as distance from the base station, local conditions, user numbers, hardware and software configuration, download source and other factors. See Telstra for details of locations.
See the Ultimate USB in action (video):
Australians now have access to the world’s fastest national mobile broadband service with the launch today of the Telstra Ultimate™ USB Modem across Australia’s capital city CBDs and associated airports, selected metropolitan hubs and more than 100 regional centres.With typical download speeds ranging from 1.1Mbps to 20Mbps in the these selected areas, the Telstra Ultimate™ USB is up to twice as fast as Telstra’s current fastest Next G™ modem*.Two thousand devices have launched today for Telstra business customers, before the widespread launch of the Ultimate USB Modem later this year.“Australians are telling us they can’t afford to be tied to the desk all day and these new speeds mean they can now access mobile broadband at speeds typically reserved for the office,” Telstra Business Group Managing Director, Deena Shiff said.“We have been deploying the high-speed capability in the network since December 2009 and now, with the launch of the new Ultimate USB Modem, these new speeds are available to customers across all capital city CBDs and associated airports, selected metropolitan areas and in more than 100 regional locations.*“These high-speed zones cover approximately 50 per cent of the Australian population and match the areas of highest customer demand and will make the frustration of waiting around for files to download a thing of the past.“In other metropolitan and regional areas, the Telstra Ultimate USB Modem offers typical download speeds ranging from 550kbps up to 8Mbps, which is still significantly faster than Telstra’s mobile broadband competitors.”Ms Shiff said the new speeds had the potential to increase how and where our small and large business customers work – boosting productivity in the process.“Our customers have told us that they want higher speed mobile broadband so they can work more flexibly outside of the office and we are delighted to be the first in the world to offer these new blistering speeds on a national network.”“The new Telstra Ultimate USB Modem provides customers with the speeds needed to handle large files, multitask and update cloud-hosted applications effortlessly on the go when they are in a coverage area.”The Telstra Ultimate™ USB Modem is the latest jump in mobile broadband technology to be made available on Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile broadband network – the Telstra Next G™ network.The Telstra Ultimate™ USB is the world’s first commercial USB modem to use a new generation of mobile broadband technology called dual channel HSPA+. The modem and enabling network technology was developed in collaboration with leading technology companies Ericsson, Qualcomm and Sierra Wireless.The Telstra Ultimate™ USB can be purchased in conjunction with a range of mobile broadband plans including for $0 upfront with a $69 plan over 24 months (minimum total cost $1,656) or, from 5 October, outright for $299. It is available from 25 August through Telstra Business and Telstra Enterprise & Government account managers.For more information, including Ultimate speed coverage areas, visit: www.telstra.com/business/ultimate
Media contact: Craig Middleton 0400 931 772
Reference Number: 309/2010
Telstra logo.
On Monday, Australian telecommunications company Telstra has introduced dual carrier  standard for broadband Internet business customers in the  network. This is the first time this technology is being introduced on national scale. The bandwidths the users can deploy increased into two to three times, with Telstra becoming the world’s fastest national mobile broadband service. The switch started with enabling the service for premium users. After some feedback, Telstra may expand the plan.

=== Introduction ===

The higher speeds for wireless are intended to simplify and ease multitasking of users.

John Paitaridis, Telstra's executive director, network products and services in Enterprise & Government, said "One of the reasons we decided to launch first to Enterprise And Government and Business customers is that clients are saying that their ability to access applications quicker makes a difference to their business and when they start to equate time savings and doing calculations around productivity it does become a return on investment."

Telstra Business Group Managing Director Deena Shiff also stated that the efforts aren't as sudden as it might seem, having feedback of many users as the base.


=== Technology ===
Telstra GSM and NextG mobile phone tower
Previous modems were able to reach peak speed 21Mbps, with real life speeds ranging from 0.5Mbps to 8 Mbps. The theoretically expected maximum of the new technology is 42Mbps with user speeds varying between 1.1 and 20 Mbps. The new speed is twice as fast. This is caused by that the dual-carrier "Evolved High-Speed Packet Access" technology allows networks to send and receive wireless data using two channels simultaneously. This technology can be deployed on Next G networks. Telstra switched to them in February, thus making the switch to HSPA possible now.

=== Election campaign ===
Tony Abbott in 2010.
Telstra delayed the implementation of the new technology until elections end. This decision was intended to avoid wrong interpretation of them by . Coalition's claims include that wireless networks can be an alternative to the  "''fibre-to-the-home''" proposal to introduce more expensive wired Internet. The announcement of the new technology, initially planned on August 25, was delayed, with Telstra spokesman Craig Middleton explaining, "We just didn't want to feel like we were influencing the telecommunications debate."

The political parties have different plans on development and funds on the Internet. The Labor party aims to spend AUD 43 billion to bring 1 Gbps wired Internet nationwide, and the Coalition plans to spend AUD 6 billion to introduce a variety of improvements including upgrade of existing copper Internet as well as expansion of wireless Internet to support 12Mbps. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has said in the past that Australians shouldn’t assume wireless technologies won’t ever be comparable to fixed-line technology. Telstra's upgrade shows that wireless broadband is reaching the 100 Mbps minimum speeds promised by Labor's national broadband network.

=== Distribution ===
A NextG Telstra wireless USB modem
Telstra has only 2000 devices which support the new technology. This is why the opportunity to try it out is being given only to the Business plan customers, and they receive it for the same price as they were paying for the previous NextG plan. Since October 5, the device will be available for sale, with the Business customers able to buy it with 75% discount and a prepaid data allowance. The upgrade is expected to cover roughly 50% of the population. This is happening at the same time as one of Telstra's competitors  is doubling data download quotas on mobile cap plans.

As some testing showed, real life download speeds reached only about the half of the maximum. Telstra executive director of wireless Mike Wright explained that the predicted figures were the estimates, with real life speeds lower due to interfering environmental conditions: "It's possible to achieve better than the typical user speed claims, but those claims occur in the ideal network environment with good signal quality. When you're out on the streets you get a lot of variation where the network is subject to signal quality, your location and the network load."