Telstra's getting huge data speeds -- at record distances
by Brian White 
posted Feb 18th 2007 at 5:59PM
Are you ready for one of those pesky but necessary cell sites to reach beyond the few miles that many of them are provisioned for now? Get rid of those nasty watt-limits and stretch that single cell out to 100 kilometers. Well, not really -- but if you're into cell coverage, you might have tasty chops for this. Telstra and Ericsson (one of the largest mobile infrastructure companies) say that a new record of cellular data coverage and speeds has been established with Telstra's Next G HSDPA network -- to the tune of 200 kilometers in diameter and data speeds of 14.4 mbps on the downside. How did they do this? Well, the pair installed advanced Ericsson equipment on several mountaintops in Australia (how quaint) to get that range. Ok, we're ready to move to a mountain range now, just to get that awesomely stretched cellular coverage. How about speeds, you may ask? Telstra stated that peak uplink speeds of 1.9 mbps and downlink speeds of 14.4 mbps were achieved. Not too shabby.[Thanks, Lucas H.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben @ Feb 18th 2007 11:03PM
Wow, thanks Telstra! Now 98% percent of the Australian population has the privilege of paying $150 per gigabyte for data on their phone! In fact, I think I will start watching some Youtube videos on my 3G handset right now - that will be a great way to spend 50 or 60 bucks...and I can spend it in less time than ever before!
Congratulations guys on pricing yourself into irrelevance once again!
engadget @ Feb 21st 2007 4:58AM
while Telstra's 3G network isn't check it certainly has incredible coverage. I am posting this from Coral Bay in North Western Australia, population 150. The closest town is Carnarvon some 200 kms away. Download speed is 1.5 megabit upload 1 megabit.
If you want cheap broadband and you live in one of the metro areas get ADSL.
If you want very wide coverage broadband without being tied to a fixed line I am sorry to say but Telstra is your only option at the moment. It's not cheap but then again a liter of Diesel at the local pump is AU$ 1.50 and beer at the local pub is AU$6 . $200 for a 3 Gbyte plan suddenly doesn't seem that expensive.