Telstra 21Mbps broadband trials to start soon

The executive director of Telstra Wireless, Mike Wright, is said to have made the first data call on the enhanced network at 4.00pm AEST on Friday.

Full commercial launch of the up to 21Mbps broadband service is expected ‘early next year’, the telco said in a statement.

"HSPA evolution is live and working for the first time anywhere in the world in a commercial network on the Telstra Next G network in Australia,” said Michael Rocca, group managing director of Telstra Networks and Services.

“Ericsson and Telstra are seeing great results ahead of upcoming trials and device deployment.”

HSPA evolution is also known as HSPA+. It brings the maximum possible downlink speed for HSPA to 21Mbps, much higher than the current maximum of 14Mbps.

The step to 21Mbps is obtained by using a higher-order modulation, called 64QAM that makes it possible for HSPA systems to send data bits with a higher rate.

Future steps in the HSPA evolution path are said to include technologies like Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technologies and multi-carrier transmission.

By combining these improvements, downlink speeds over 80Mbps and uplink speeds over 20Mbps will be possible, Ericsson claims.

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