Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 07 October 2008 10:16
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Telstra has finally announced that its network will be capable of
reaching “peak” speeds of 21Mbps, but just as there are no 14.4Mbps
devices on the current 14.4Mbps “peak” capable network, we won’t see
any 21Mbps-class devices anytime soon, either.
Claims that Telstra has ever said its network would deliver the full speed it is rated at have always been wrong, as Telstra – and all other wireless network equipment manufacturers and providers – have always been careful to make the distinction between top theoretical speeds and real network speeds.
Telstra’s HSPA network is being upgraded to Enhanced HSPA, or eHSPA/HPSA+, which will deliver those top theoretical speeds of 21Mbps. A further upgrade during 2009 will take network speeds to a theoretical maximum of 42Mbps.
Telstra will soon be upgrading the HSUPA capability of its existing HSPA network from 1.9Mbps upstream (with real world speeds of 300Kbps to 1.3Mbps) to 5.7Mbps class speeds, although real world speeds will be slower, as is always the case.
Mike Wright, Executive Director Telstra Wireless, saw Ericsson’s demo of eHSPA in Stockholm, Sweden, and said: “This is truly game-changing. Telstra has a proven history of investment in Australia’s nation-wide, HSPA-enabled Next G network and this is our latest, very important step toward realising this technology.
“Practically speaking, our tests have shown that when combined with our planned rollout of Ethernet backhaul, this network will deliver truly high-speed connectivity on the move.”
“The peak speeds and network efficiency enabled by this evolution will encourage the development of more innovative applications and, importantly, increase our network capacity to support the explosion we are experiencing in wireless internet use,” said Mr Wright.
Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, said, “The demonstration is significant proof of the maturity of HSPA Evolution HSPA technology. Ericsson is the market leader in introducing the latest HSPA network solutions in operator networks that give customers the best possible mobile broadband experience.”
Alex Katouzian, vice president of product management, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies said: “In addition to higher peak rates, people will enjoy shorter response times and a better overall experience when using their mobile devices on the eHSPA network.”
But just as Telstra’s 14.4Mbps network only has 7.2Mbps class devices available to connect to it, able to reach speeds from 500Kbps to “up to” 5 to 6Mbps, so will any future 14.4Mbps and 21Mbps class devices also only deliver part of their total true rating.
It’s just like things are with 802.11b/g/n networks. 11Mbps “b” devices never went much beyond 3-4 Mbps, 54Mbps “g” networks never went beyond 20-30Mbps in “real speeds”.
So any claims that Telstra is “hosing down” expectations is wrong, they were never hosed up to begin with.
What's always been the "real world" scenario? Please read on to page 2.
