Telstra brings wireless broadband up to speed

Telstra claimed that the new Mobile Turbocards and BigPond Wireless Broadband 7.2 cards, which are targeted for home and office laptops, are as fast as any on Earth.

Practically, however, the cards will average download speeds between 550 kbps to 3 Mbps, with occasional speed bursts up to 6 Mbps. While upload speeds will average between 300 kbps and 1 Mbps, with bursts up to 1.3 Mbps. The previous maximum upload speed for the technology peaked at 384 kbps.

"Today there is now very little to distinguish between the speed of a wireless and a wired broadband service," Telstra BigPond group managing director, Justin Milne, said.

The Telstra Mobile Turbocard and Bigpond Wireless Broadband 7.2 cards will be available in ExpressCard and USB format, and will work on Windows 2000, XP and Vista, and Mac OS X 10.4.

The speed boosts will also be extended to Telstra’s Next G data cards through a firmware upgrade.

Telstra product management group managing director, Holly Kramer, said free 7.2 upgrades of existing Next G Turbo and Next G BigPond Wireless devices from Sierra Wireless, Maxon and ZTE, would also be available.

"Most existing Next G data card users can take advantage of the new, faster download speeds with an easy upgrade over the internet. The device upgrade will be available through either Telstra Business or BigPond," Kramer said.

Telstra also announced it has extended the Next G network coverage to include Cradle Mountain, Marble Bar and onboard The Spirit of Tasmania that connects Victoria to Tasmania across the Bass Strait.