Here’s some solid progress for mobile broadband: Australian operator Telstra not only claims the world’s fastest mobile broadband service, at 21Mbps, but they plan to double that speed by year’s end. Yeah, that’s right: 42Mbps, all wirelessly. It will take a special data card, developed by a number of companies (Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm, and Sierra) to access the HSPA+ network, but it sounds like it will be worth it. Those are speeds you don’t often see even with cable broadband in the U.S.
Could the U.S. speeds catch up any time soon? Technically the answer is yes. Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo explains:
“In just over two years, we have taken our world leading network from peak network speeds of 3.6Mbps to 21Mbps and today we are launching the world’s first commercial 21Mbps peak-rated modem,” Trujillo said.
If they can do it down under, we can sure do it here in the U.S. The question is, will any current carrier be motivated to do so? Another question to ponder: will people pay the initial price for equipment? The modem itself will cost $325 American dollars, with just a small subsidy for signing a two-year contract. That price will surely fall, but at what point will it be worth it for consumers?
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