Fancy faster web browsing on a tablet? You’d better get familiar with Category 4 LTE in that case, as well as Vodafone’s pledge to offer the nation’s first 4G tablet on plan from next month.
Category 4 refers to a specific speed profile on an LTE network that allows devices to pull down a theoretical maximum speed of 150Mbps. Category 3 devices are only capable of 4G speeds up to 100Mbps, but a Category 4 device charges that right up to 150Mbps down. Compare that to previous wireless generations and you find that DC-HSPA is only capable of 42Mbps, while HSPA+ can only muster 21Mbps.
Vodafone has pledged to offer the Huawei MediaPad 10 Link 4G: a Category 4-capable 10-inch tablet packing a quad-core 1.5GHz processor a 1280×800 pixels (149 ppi) screen and 8GB of storage, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.
Vodafone currently has Category 4 coverage enabled in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, unlike Telstra which only has Cat 4 in Brisbane and Adelaide. Incidentally, that’s how Vodafone can claim that it has the fastest 4G network in Sydney.
The tablet will retail on three different plans:
• $35 Tablet Plan, over 24 months with 2.5GB each month
• $45 Tablet Plan, over 24 months with 4GB each month
• $60 Tablet Plan, over 24 months with 8GB each month
It goes on sale from August 14.