Telstra’s been talking up their NextG network for some time as the world’s fastest, and for good reason. At 14.4Mbps, it currently is the world’s fastest, although there aren’t a lot of devices on the market that take advantage of that speed (most HSDPA phones and modems run at 7.2Mbps).

But, at the company’s annual Investor Day briefing today, they unveiled a new modem produced in conjunction with Qualcomm, Ericsson and Sierra Wireless, to blow the current network’s 14.4Mbps speeds out of the water. The new modem will be capable of 21Mbps, which is the speed Telstra will be taking its NextG network to early next year, with trials starting next month.

The technology, called enhanced HSPA (or eHSPA), will not only offer much faster speeds than are currently available, but will also improve network efficiency and offer increased capacity for all the consumers that will flock trickle over to NextG.

Of course, knowing Telstra, when they do launch this super-fast modem, they’ll also price it beyond the reach of us mere mortals. But still, for wireless internet that covers most of Australia and offers near ADSL2+ speeds, you’d expect to pay a premium of some kind, wouldn’t you?

[Telstra]