Telstra to Increase HSDPA to 14.4 Mbps in 2007

Australian operator Telstra says it will conduct field trials to increase peak network speeds on its new Next G network by about 300 per cent, reaching peak speeds of 14.4 Mbps (megabits per second) by early 2007.

The trials will go ahead in rural Victoria and will help prepare the Next G network for expected boosts in customer demand for data rich applications and new content services on mobiles.

The faster peak network speeds will give customers increased average user speeds and provide more cell and traffic capacity.

Telstra claims the the world's geographically largest national 3G network, based on HSDPA 850MHz standard. Telstra's Next G currently offers download speeds averaging 550 kbps to 1.5 Mbps, and peak network speeds of up to 3.6Mbps.

The Next G core network will be upgraded with a more advanced version of Ericsson software which will enable the radio network to operate at 14.4 Mbps peak network speeds and increased peak network uplink speeds from the current 384 Kbps to 1.8 Mbps using High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).