NBN shudders as Telstra brings even faster 3G Wi-Fi to masses?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 06 April 2011 14:01

Your IT - Mobility

With NBN under a cloud due to the latest controversy over building costs, Telstra laughs in the face of the 'National Broadband Network' with an even faster 3G high-speed mobile hotspot.

With the NBN without a construction partner, at least for this particular moment of time, the real broadband action is happening in the wireless space, as Australians wait for the delivery of fibre into homes that doesn't come in a cereal box.

Although Telstra and many other networking equipment manufacturers have had mobile broadband hotspots available for some time now, with Netcomm's price-reduced MyZone 3G hotspot my personal favourite, Telstra is powering ahead with its second 3G mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, naturally packing some nifty benefits.

Available in pre-paid and post-paid versions, with the pre-paid version arriving on April 12, Telstra's 'Elite Mobile Wi-Fi' is what Telstra says is 'Australia's fastest battery-powered 3G mobile Wi-Fi device and allows people to share internet connectivity with up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously wherever there is Next G coverage.'

The 'key features' of the Elite Mobile Wi-Fi are as follows:

- Metro and regional customers can get up to 8Mbs download and 3Mbps upload speeds, with 'real world speeds' anywhere from 550kbps to 8Mbps for downloads, and from 300kbps to 3Mbps for uploads, depending on the usual factors.

Naturally, the "real" real world speeds you can expect will probably max out at up to half of the 8Mbps down and 3Mbps up speeds quoted, again depending on the factors of where you are in relation to the closest tower and what building materials or otherwise are in the way of you getting a great signal, as well as whether or not you are using an external antenna.

Areas outside 'metro and regional' will see slower high-end speeds as is currently the case, and if there are 'multiple users' accessing the device at the same time, 'the typical speed range per user may be reduced'.

- Wi-Fi 802.11 b and g is enabled on the device, so no 802.11n yet, but if it was available it'd likely be a bigger battery drain, and for the vast majority of mobile users, 802.11 g is more than enough.

- 'Active battery life' is quoted at 'up to 4 hours', with a standby time of 'up to 100 hours'.

- As with other similar device, you can recharge via USB from your laptop or you can recharge via an AC USB charger.

- You can also plug in a MicroSD card of up to 32GB, presumably only accessible when connected via USB cable, and an external antenna is also available as a separate option.

- The hotspot design is 'compact and lightweight' and features a 'handy OLED display which provides information such as signal strength, number of devices connected and battery level at a glance' - all useful information if you're a mobile hotspot owner!

The cost of Telstra's Elite Pre-Paid Mobile Wi-Fi device is AUD $129, and it comes with 5GB of data with 90 days expiry - Telstra describes this as generous and it's very hard to disagree - it is a goodly amount of mobile data with a nice, long expiry period, with plans that 'start from $20 per recharge', although this will naturally be for a lower amount of data than the initially included 5GB, with more information available here.

If you're a Tesltra Business customer, you can get the device for '$0 upfront', although you'll be on a '24 month' Telstra Mobile Broadband Standard Plan at $29 per month with 1GB of data included per month, with more information available here.

 

What does Telstra have to say about its new Next G Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot? Please read on to page two!