Telstra will be doubling the data speeds over its Next G network later this year. The company also said that regional Australians will be among the first to experience and enjoy these new speeds.

Telstra’s CEO, David Thodey said that 100 regional towns and cities including Albury, Alice Springs, Orange, Broome, Ballarat, Roxby Downs, Port Lincoln and Newcastle will benefit from the new 3G modem when it becomes available to customers.

According to the company, customers using the new device called the Telstra Ultimate USB will be able to download files or surf the Internet up to twice as fast as those using the next-fastest 3G modem currently available on an Australian national network.

“Telstra will make this new technology available in 100 selected regional towns and cities at the same time as many capital cities, underlining our commitment to provide the best technology to Australians no matter where they live,” Mr Thodey said.

“Telstra has been investing in regional and rural Australia for more than 100 years, including through Telstra Country Wide for the past ten years, to improve the quality of life for people living and working in regional and rural Australia.”

“The first decade of Telstra Country Wide is just the beginning. Telstra is committed to continuing its investment in regional and rural Australia so we can provide local consumers, businesses, governments, schools and health services with the same leading edge services that are available elsewhere in Australia,” he said.

In addition to this announcement, Thodey also said that that the company had recently commissioned its 7,000th Next G base station, expanding Australia’s fastest national mobile broadband network.

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If you cna afford to spend it and you want the speed, then the newly-launched Telstra Elite mobile broadband card is a very attractive 3G mobile broadband option. It offers theoretical maximum speeds of up to 8Mbps in capital cities as well as quad-band access, making it a very sensible choice if you plan travelling and require internet access.

To get it started your laptop  will require an ExpressCard or PC card slot. The card can be purchased for $399 outright, or subsidised with a 24-month contract on one of Telstra’s business plans.

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From the Telstra Website:

Telstra has become the first operator in the world to test HSPA+ Dual Carrier technology outside of vendor laboratories. I’m pleased to say, in the closed test environment we’re seeing an average of 36Mbps download speeds, bursting to 40Mbps.

Right now we are carrying out these first tests of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) using Dual Carrier technology on our Next G™ closed test network, using Qualcomm’s MDM8220™ chipset. Our tests are in conjunction with our strategic partner, Ericsson, which has seen similar success in laboratory conditions in Sweden this week.

HSPA+ Dual Carrier technology is designed to an engineering standard of peak network downlink speeds of 42Mbps. The speeds achieved during our test – on a dedicated, closed test network – highlight that the technology can indeed deliver speeds approaching that specification. In real world conditions actual customer download speeds will always be less than 42Mbps.

Our tests so far indicate that once the technology is deployed onto our live network, we expect customers with a compatible device in selected areas will experience speeds around double that of today’s typical user experience using a HSPA+ device.

Further to this testing, we are on track to deploy software capable of supporting HSPA+ Dual Carrier technology in the Next G™ network by the end of the year. No other carrier in Australia today can even come close to offering such advanced technology on a mobile broadband network.

New devices compatible with the HSPA+ Dual Carrier technology and allowing customers to experience enhanced download speeds are expected to be available later in 2010. Telstra is already working with Qualcomm and Sierra Wireless to bring these devices to market.

The Next G™ network has already changed the way Australians live and work with its speed, capacity and coverage. What we are discovering with the HSPA+ Dual Carrier tests is a super fast mobile broadband solution that, once available for commercial launch and once compatible devices are available, will deliver meaningful speed, capacity and efficiency improvements on the network.

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Ideally I would have gone out and purchased a usb from each of Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and 3 Mobile to complete the tests myself but maybe will have to wait for next year to do this. Instead I have been scouring the net to find a test that a reputable magazine has performed on mobile broadband speeds that will assist you the reader in making your next wireless broadband decision.

Let me tell you it isn’t easy. It continues to baffle me just how confusing this whole industry must be for the everyday consumer who hears all these words relating to internet speed, bandwidth, data, downloads and uploads, the list goes on.

I don’t envy your position at all. At the end of the day though, what can be said about mobile broadband is that if price is an issue for you and you can only afford prepaid internet, or if you are only browsing the web and doing limited downloading/uploading and if dialup or satellite are the only other options available to you then mobile broadband is a great alternative.

The table below will give you some idea on what maximum speeds you can expect with mobile broadband.

So until I can find the $500 to do the test myself I will refer to a report undertaken by APC Magazine in Oct 2008. So its not the most current and you can only assume that usb modems have improved over this time and that speeds may also have improved somewhat. What is good about the test is that it covered all times of internet use, from web browsing to watching videos.

It is by far the most comprehensive comparison I have found. So here are the results:

Note that these tests were undertaken in CBD Sydney, so speeds outside of the CBD are likely to be slower and will gradually worsen the further you move out. They may also vary from city to city and probably by time of the day undertaken. You can view the original report here

In conclusion however, it seem that the fastest speeds are available by Telstra, second that being 3 Mobile, then Optus then its probably a tie between Vodafone and Virgin Mobile.

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Much has been said about wireless broadband speeds in Australia and if they have he capacity to offer a real alternative to fixed lines or the new National Broadband Network (fibre to the home). To date the jury has certainly been out in favour of the NBN although with wireless coverage gradually reaching all (most) parts of Australia (we are focusing on regional Australia here), for many who don’t want a satellite connection, wireless internet remains a great choice.

This is a two part post on what wireless speeds you can currently expect in Australia and what you can actually do with speed and how you should use it to select the right interent connection for you.

Let first start with speed and what you can do with it and what all the speeds you see published mean for actually using tne internet.

Comparative chart of broadband speeds

As an example, to calculate how long it will take to download a music file (assuming it is 5MB in size), simply multiply your download speed by 5, so on a 512kbit/s connection you are looking at approx 90 seconds.

512kbit/s – 1mbit/s

If your internet access is about checking emails and browsign the internet then consider a connection of between 512 kilobits per second (kbit/s) and one megabit per second (mbit/s). Even the occssional downloading of large images and even streaming of some video will be ok.

2mbit/s – 4mbit/s

If your internet access needs include downloading music, videos as well as using Voice over Internet Protocol for your phone calls eg Skype, then 2 – 4 mbit/s is required.

4mbit/s – 8mbit/s

If your internet access includes downloading lots of music and large-size video files eg movies, having VOIP as your main phone connection s well as playing online video games, then you need to look at a connection of between four and eight mbit/s.

8mbit/s – 24mbit/s

This is what they call ADSL2+ and its for those that want the feastest connection for the best online performnce, whether it is downloading content, streaming vide or radio, using VOIP and playing the fastest online games.

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