Telstra unveils Elite Wi-Fi hotspot

Telstra has launched a prepaid Wi-Fi dongle it believes will appeal to casual business users working away from the corporate office.

The Elite dongle, manufactured by ZTE, is battery-powered and allows a Next G connection to be shared between up to five devices, effectively becoming a "mobile hotspot".

The dongle supported peak download speeds up to 8 Mbps and upload speeds to 3 Mbps, according to Telstra.

It was available for $129 outright. The consumer plan included 5GB of data, while business customers could select from Telstra's existing mobile broadband plans.

The dongle would be available from next week.

"The Telstra Elite mobile Wi-Fi should prove popular with our business customers who increasingly use Wi-Fi enabled devices such as tablets and cameras and require mobile connectivity to support fast file transfers and to work flexibly while away from the office," said Telstra's mobility products group executive director, Warwick Bray.