Australian operator Telstra yesterday announced that its Next G HSPA Evolution network will be upgraded to 42Mb/s by the end of the year.  The announcement came as the CEOs of Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Sierra Wireless jointly unveiled the world’s first 21Mb/s peak rated mobile broadband modem. Typically delivering data rates of up to 8 Mb/s to end-users, the Telstra Turbo 21 will be available to business customers from 23 February with a consumer offering following in April.  Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo said, “With 21Mb/s rated network and devices, we expect to see business productivity increase even further at a time when business and governments need to find practical ways to lift economies out of recession and do more with less.”

Trujillo reported that Telstra’s 3G penetration grew by 19 percentage points to 54 per cent in the half year to December 2008. Data accounted for 36 percent of mobile services retail revenue over the same period. The ARPU differential between Telstra’s 3G and 2G postpaid customers is in excess of AUD20 (€10.3) per month. Jason Cohenour, CEO of Sierra Wireless, revealed that as well as the Telstra Turbo 21 wireless modem, his company has also developed an embedded module to enable original equipment manufacturers to incorporate Next G network support in new products.