NextG On Track For 21Mbps Downloads By End Of Year (If Only Someone Releases The Hardware To Work With It)

Yesterday, Telstra celebrated the second birthday of its NextG network by announcing that they are on track to deliver even faster speeds on the network. The Enhanced HSPA (eHSPA) network is theoretically capable of 21Mbps download speeds - which is significantly faster than any of the country’s other HSPA networks (which typically max out at about 7Mbps theoretically).

When the Big T launches their eHSPA network (which it claims will happen by the end of the year), it will make them the first carrier to offer the 21Mbps speeds.

Of course, the only problem with this comes not from Telstra, but from the lack of compliant hardware on the consumer side. After all, NextG is already capable of speeds around 14.4Mbps, but there isn’t a whole lot of handsets (or other devices) that take advantage of the speeds. It’s why those claims of a 42Mbps iPhone were such crap - the chip inside the iPhone was only capable of 7.2Mbps.

Still, the hardware will come eventually, and although Telstra is certain to charge obscene amounts of cash for these types of speeds, it’s still impressive that you’ll be able to get lightning fast wireless connectivity all around Australia.

[Telstra]