Tired of having to stand up (way, way up) on the brumby to pull down even a single bar of EDGE from the dusty ditches of the Great Central? We hear you, Aussies -- and so does Telstra. The carrier has retooled its 165i "Country Phone" from ZTE, making it better based on usability testing and customer feedback; in this case, "better" means it's gotten a little smaller, features a nicer screen, and has gained AGPS (probably not a bad thing to have when you're in the middle of nowhere). It's ruggedized and makes use of an oh-so-rare extendable antenna for insane reception that earns it Telstra's coveted Blue Tick certification, but you still get 3G, Bluetooth, FM radio, and a 2-megapixel camera -- all told, it's all set up to be a "big hit in the bush" to steal a bit of Telstra's verbiage. It goes for $529 AUD (about $346) when it drops on December 1.

Samsung's touchscreen-centric F480 isn't the freshest of the fresh right now, but it's still hot news for folks in Australia. Telstra has just added the F480T to its Next G lineup, and with it comes a 2.8-inch LCD, 5-megapixel camera, support for the outfit's 7.2Mbps data network, 200MB of onboard memory, an SD expansion slot, Bluetooth 2.0, haptic feedback and access to Mobile FOXTEL. Put it in your pocket right now for as low as free on a $60 plan for two years.

Making good on a promise delivered at MWC earlier this year, Telstra has announced that its customers will be "the first in the world" to experience 21Mbps of blazing download speed when it launches the first phase of its HSPA Evolution network by the end of 2008. We don't have any particularly good reason to believe it'll be the iPhone 3G that's experiencing those ridiculous data rates, but by the same token, Telstra has yet to announce exactly what hardware it'll be offering at retail to go along with the service. If we had to guess, the first round will see a data card or two.

For our money, there's really nothing worse than dropping a few hundred bucks on a shiny new 3G toy, taking it home to the Outback, and realizing that we're getting more wallaby meat than we are reception. Happily, Telstra has a pretty unique program in the carrier world -- dubbed "Blue Tick" -- that awards certain devices in its lineup for their killer signal strength, which theoretically makes them more appropriate choices for use in rural and fringe areas where lesser phones might struggle. Interestingly, the Treo Pro is now the first smartphone in Telstra's Blue Tick range -- which they're offering for as little as zilch on a two year contract, by the by -- making it a solid choice for anyone around the world who's looking for a modern WinMo set with enough signal-pulling power to make a Motorola V365 green with envy. Only question is, can we still completely encase it in gold and hold a call?

Oh sure, Telstra's Next G HSDPA network is pretty swank, but what's the use in having a potent high-speed infrastructure if it's too expensive for anyone to use? Thankfully, said carrier is finally loosening up a bit on its data pricing by giving Aussies more megabytes for the same price that they're currently paying. Starting now, $10 mobile data packages include 150MB per month (up from 20MB), while the $29 pack includes 300MB per month (up from 80MB). Additionally, excess data rates have been "reduced" on both packs, though dollars and cents weren't mentioned on that. Best of all, customers already subscribed to one of the aforesaid plans won't have to do a thing in order to see their capacities bumped.

Hey Australians, how are your thumbs feeling? You have just a precious few weeks here to get 'em in shape, because Telstra has announced that it'll be bringing RIM's latest slice of mobile glory, the Bold, to its network in late September. In the meantime, CEO of Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service was hooked up this week all John Mayer-style and presented with a Bold well ahead of its official launch date, so RIM and Telstra must be feeling pretty good about the latest firmware if they're going to actually unleash it on a real-world exec (assuming he's actually going to be clipping it to his belt day in and day out). Late September's just a little late for the global summer release RIM had originally envisioned, but there's a silver lining: Telstra says the Bold will go for a whopping goose-egg -- zero dollars, that is -- to its business customers when it goes on sale.

Don't act like you didn't know that Pope Benedict XVI was down with modern technology. As part of World Youth Day, the man himself will begin sending out texts of encouragement to pilgrims who have signed up through Telstra to receive them. A total of four gigantic "prayer walls" have been erected at the Sydney Opera House, the Domain, Darling Harbour and Randwick Racecourse in Australia, where folks will actually be able to send their own messages for all to presumably see. The first message sent out? "Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus - BXVI." Hllujh, amn brtha.

[Thanks, zedster]

Recognizing that the power and complexity of its handsets have long since exceeded the average user's patience to master them, Australian carrier Telstra has rounded up a team of "Telstra Mentors," dedicated experts who will be making house calls to help folks learn the ins and outs of mobile browsing, video calling, and other advanced features. Although the service is primarily aimed at businessfolk who simply don't have the time to devote to a novel-esque user's manual, Telstra says that it'll initially be available to those in and around Sydney who "use sophisticated devices for their personal, work or business needs" with the intention of eventually expanding it to other cities. Surprisingly, a visit from your friendly local Mentor will be free -- and no, we don't think it's alright to call one over just because you're bored out of your mind.

Get this. Australian site ChannelNews claims that a "senior executive of Telstra" is the latest 3G iPhone bean spiller. They quote the exec as saying the following:

"We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA. By Christmas this phone will be capable of 42Mbps which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world."

Interesting. We know that Telstra's Next G HSDPA network has been capable of 14.4Mbps since 2007. At GSMA Mobile World Congress, they even committed to 21Mbps before the end of the year and 42Mbps using HSPA+ (aka, Evolved HSPA, HSPA Evolution) technology in 2009... not Christmas of 2008. Hard to say if this is just industry blow-harding or actual insider info. June 9th: T-minus 17 days and counting.

[Thanks, Paul S.]

Read -- Telstra 42Mbps HSPA+ in 2009
Read -- Telstra 3G iPhone rumor

Smartphones are a disappointingly rare occurrence in prepaid stables in some corners of the world, but at least Telstra's doing its part. The Australian carrier has launched Palm's Centro obligation-free for $299 AUD (about $286), giving Aussies a solid option for taking a trip down Garnet lane without shelling out any more monthly cash than they need to. Interestingly, the Telstra model sports a white shell but eschews AT&T's funky green buttons for a more conservative gray set -- and honestly, now that we've had some time to get used to 'em, we sort of miss the green. Are we crazy?

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Oh, come on, Qualcomm, show a little emotion; shed a tear or something! After some two years of planning and urging legacy customers to migrate, Australia's Telstra has flipped a big, red, scary-looking switch somewhere, sending its CDMA network into darkness, never to return. The move effectively obsoletes roughly 3,500 CDMA sites around the country along with what the carrier bills as "redundant equipment" -- a nice little cost savings, no doubt, not to mention the freeing of significant chunks of spectrum for more advanced services. As you might have guessed, Telstra is jumping through these hoops to get customers onto its Next G-branded UMTS network, mirroring a widespread trend away from CDMA-based technologies and toward the GSM roadmap. Globally, it seems like CDMA2000 has years of life left -- but without a shred of major carrier support for the 4G path, its glory days may be numbered.

[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]

Telstra boss Sol Trujillo's total non-denial late last year that the iPhone would eventually be hitting his network left little doubt in our minds that Aussies' iPhone-less days were numbered, but in case we needed any more evidence to close the case, we think we have it here. Turns out that Telstra has put out feelers to hire a business analyst for an "iPhone search application" on a 2 to 3 month contract, and since we figure there aren't going to be a whole heck of a lot of non-Telstra users (or non-Australians, for that matter) that give two flips about such an app, it can only mean that the carrier will be bringing some iPhone love to its domestic airwaves in the not-too-distant future. The only real question here is whether the "application" in question is a web app or a native one -- you know, the kind that the SDK and firmware 2.0 would be required to support. Guess we'll know soon enough.

[Via 9 to 5 Mac, thanks Chris]

Not only has Telstra secured exclusive rights to i-mate's freshly minted 8502 and 9502 Windows Mobile superphones in Australia -- it turns out they'll also be the very first carrier to launch 'em anywhere in the world when they hit shelves early next month. The carrier has historically been an excellent customer of i-mate's, bringing a grand total of ten devices to its airwaves so far in a five-year deal. Lucky Aussies will see the 8502 landing for $999 AUD (about $898) while the Sidekick 9502 drops for a whopping $1099 AUD (about $988).

Why can't we just have and enjoy the latest, greatest pre-4G technology for a few frickin' minutes without having our collective attentions immediately redirected to the next latest, greatest thing? Qualcomm has gone and spoiled all the fun by announcing that it'll be setting up HSPA+ trials with Australia's Telstra, Italy's Telecom Italia, Hutchison 3 in the UK, and Telefonica this year to deliver downlink speeds up to 28Mbps as an evolutionary upgrade to the networks' already-deployed HSPA systems. If all goes well, Qualcomm expects that the technology could be commercialized as early as 2009, potentially putting it head-to-head with the very first volleys in the race to true 4G via LTE. 28Mbps, 173Mbps... we think we know which one we'd rather have in our backyard.

[Via MobileBurn]

We've been hearing that Telstra had the means to deliver some pretty impressive numbers via its Next G HSDPA network, and sure enough, the carrier seems to have finally activated it. According to its website and an independent report, users can now see download speeds ranging from 3Mbps to upwards of 6Mbps, while clocking upload rates between 300Kbps and 1.3Mbps. Telstra claims that users can see peak speeds of 7.2Mbps / 1.9Mbps, but of course, that's under "ideal conditions." So, if you're a Telstra user looking to get in on the high-speed fun, head on out and pick up a 7.2Mbps-class data card, and for those who already own a firmware upgradeable 3.6Mbps-class card, you should be receiving instructions to update shortly.

[Via ITWire, thanks Simon]