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Telstra will charge as much as $499 for a 21 megabits-per-second modem to access full speed of the new HSPA+ upgrade to its Next G third-generation network.
But customers who elect to take a $39/month, $50/month or above “data pack” for 24 months will be able to buy the modem for $299.
Pricing was revealed yesterday at a media event in Telstra’s Sydney “Experience Centre”, where executives officially unveiled the new 21Mbps HSPA+ service, due to start operating for business customers in some cities from February 23.
Telstra is claiming the upgrade makes its network the world’s fastest – a claim confirmed by Guinness World Records yesterday.
As mentioned by CEO Sol Trujillo in Barcelona on Monday (CDN, yesterday), Telstra plans a move to 42Mbps in “some parts” of the network later in the year. “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet,” promised Sol in a video message screened at yesterday’s event.
Telstra will continue to offer its slower “Turbo 7” and “Turbo 7+” modems at $149 and $299 with $39 data packs. The Turbo 7+ drops to $149 with a $59 or above data pack.
The 21Mbps modem, made by Sierra Wireless, will be offered initially to business customers in capital cities and major regional centres, said Michael Rocca, Telstra networks and services managing director.
The 21Mbps service will be extended to 85 percent of the network by June and the rest by the end of the year.
Consumers will be able to access the 21Mbps upgrade via a BigPond-branded modem “in coming months”. At this stage it’s Windows users only: so far there’s no Mac version.
Rocca stressed that 21Mbps is a theoretical top speed. He estimated that end users in major cities would experience download speeds of 550Kbps to 8Mbps, depend on factors like terrain, distance from a tower and number of users on simultaneously. In other areas likely download speeds will be 550K-3Mbps.
Typical uplink speeds are ut at 300Kbps-1Mbps.
Sol Trujillo forecast the new speeds would have a major effect in healthcare, with doctors able to download high quality X-rays in about 15 seconds.
Would be buyers can register for the 21Mbps modem at www.bigpond.com/21mbps-expression-of-interest.- David Frith
