Telstra have just announced the release of their blazing fast Telstra Ultimate USB Modem. While I’m not usually very picky with product names, I couldn’t help thinking how long this NextG modem will remain as the ‘ultimate‘ given the pace of technology these days.

Back to the main point…

continue reading "Telstra Give Aussies Access To World’s Fastest Mobile Broadband Network"

This afternoon a co-worker saw my Telstra NextG 21Mbps USB Stick pertruding out of my Dell XPS Laptop. Keen to see how close it got to the maximum theoretical download speed so blatantly displayed on the device, he asked me to jump onto Speedtest.net.

What is Speedtest.net?

For those who haven’t tried Speedtest.net before, it’s a handy little website that measures download speed, upload speed and latency – perfect for testing your internet connection.

Here’s the result of the test:

Despite just reaching over half the advertised theoretical max, a download speed of 10.89 Mb/s is actually very fast, especially comparing to the results of other carriers. I know with Vodafone’s offering I was only able to achieve maximums of around 2Mb/s.

Telstra Not Cheap But Damn Fast

Now before you zoom off to get a Telstra NextG stick I would recommend that you first check out their plans here. Compared to the other carriers in Australia, they’re the most expensive, but you get what you pay for i.e. better coverage and speed. I’m currently on the Telstra BigPond Liberty® 5GB for $89.95 per month.  If you thought this is expensive, 2 years ago I was paying the same price for only 1GB of data per month!

My only other major gripe with the Telstra connection (price being the biggest by far) is how fast it gets hot and as a result may disconnect. If they find a way to keep this thing cool, I’m confident that connections would be far more persistent and stable.

So, which carrier are you using? How fast can you get using Speedtest.net?

I’m keen to know who’s got the fastest Wireless Broadband connection

By the end of 2008, the new theoretical max speed of Telstra NextG would be 21Mbps, that’s more than just a few notches up from the current 14.4Mbps. I say theoretical due to the lack of compatible devices, of course, with the best phones able to only download with a speed of 7.2Mbps.

continue reading "Telstra NextG Raises the Bar with 21Mbps Max Speeds"

News junkies and people who just have a need to hear the news most times during the day can now access current affairs on their phones and it’s not just through the radio. The BigPond Live TV News was recently launched and provides a stream of news about politics, weather, finance, and of course, sports.

continue reading "BigPond Live TV News Brings 24/7 Current Affairs to Telstra NextG Handsets"

I’m admittedly not interested in sports, so the only part of the Olympics I watched is the opening—and wow, what an opening that was! I was lucky enough to have watched it on TV, but some might have been expecting to stream the Olympics on Telstra’s NextG network. Unfortunately for iPhone 3G users, you won’t be able to at all.

continue reading "Telstra: You Can Stream the Olympics on NextG, Except on iPhone 3G"