Telstra launches NEXT G network
Telstra has launched its new "NEXT G" 3G network with much fanfare today, promising real world speeds of between 550Kbit/s and 1.5Mbit/s to customers nationwide.
"No one else, here or abroad, has built and launched such a far-reaching, high speed, wireless broadband network in less than a year", said Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo. "It is a versatile, high capacity network with head room for higher speeds in the months and years ahead".
Like its competitor Vodafone, Telstra is using High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), with theoretical maximum download speeds of 3.6Mbit/s. Telstra claims that in March next year it will be able to offer peak speeds of up to 14.4Mbit/s and in 2009 up to 40Mbit/s. But based on existing disparity between claimed and actual speeds for wireless networks, the real world performance for the end user is likely to be much lower. Telstra admitted that users will initially see speeds of between 550Kbit/s and 1.5Mbit/s.
The emphasis in Telstra's briefing today was on two things — coverage and content. In terms of coverage, Telstra says its network is larger than all the other 3G networks combined, and will reach up to 98% of the population.
In terms of content, Telstra touted all of the traditional mobile products — video calls, mobile TV and music downloads. These are already available from competitors, but Telstra will be hoping that the breadth of its content will be attractive to potential customers.
To use the service for broadband data access, Telstra is offering a "NEXT G turbo card". But pricing looks to be extremely expensive, with initial plans offering 1GB for a whopping $109.95/month.
But there was no mention of ADSL2+ or Fibre to the Node, which was the big news at a similar briefing 12 months ago. AFR claimed yesterday that Telstra will not roll out ADSL2+ until it can get a guarantee "that no competitors will be granted wholesale access to the service...except on what it considers to be commercial terms."
LINKS
Telsta Media Release (Telstra, 6 Oct 2006)
Mobile data pricing plans
"No one else, here or abroad, has built and launched such a far-reaching, high speed, wireless broadband network in less than a year", said Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo. "It is a versatile, high capacity network with head room for higher speeds in the months and years ahead".
Like its competitor Vodafone, Telstra is using High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), with theoretical maximum download speeds of 3.6Mbit/s. Telstra claims that in March next year it will be able to offer peak speeds of up to 14.4Mbit/s and in 2009 up to 40Mbit/s. But based on existing disparity between claimed and actual speeds for wireless networks, the real world performance for the end user is likely to be much lower. Telstra admitted that users will initially see speeds of between 550Kbit/s and 1.5Mbit/s.
The emphasis in Telstra's briefing today was on two things — coverage and content. In terms of coverage, Telstra says its network is larger than all the other 3G networks combined, and will reach up to 98% of the population.
In terms of content, Telstra touted all of the traditional mobile products — video calls, mobile TV and music downloads. These are already available from competitors, but Telstra will be hoping that the breadth of its content will be attractive to potential customers.
To use the service for broadband data access, Telstra is offering a "NEXT G turbo card". But pricing looks to be extremely expensive, with initial plans offering 1GB for a whopping $109.95/month.
But there was no mention of ADSL2+ or Fibre to the Node, which was the big news at a similar briefing 12 months ago. AFR claimed yesterday that Telstra will not roll out ADSL2+ until it can get a guarantee "that no competitors will be granted wholesale access to the service...except on what it considers to be commercial terms."
LINKS
Telsta Media Release (Telstra, 6 Oct 2006)
Mobile data pricing plans
posted by So velvet blue @ 6:06 AM
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