Next G

Next G Network

Headquarters	Melbourne, Australia
Industry	Telecommunications
Services	Cellular Network
Parent	Telstra
Website	nextg.com.au

Telstra mobile phone Base station in Wireless Hill, Ardross, Western Australia.

Next G is a 3G UMTS mobile network run by Telstra in Australia. The network was built between November 2005 and September 2006, and launched in October 2006. Next G is the largest mobile network in Australia, providing larger coverage than other 3G providers in Australia and over three times larger than any 2G provider in Australia^[1]. The Next G Network is also the fastest mobile network in the world, delivering theoretical network speeds of up to 21Mbit/s.^[2] Telstra is planning to increase the speed up to 42Mbit/s in the second half of 2009.

The network is currently used for BigPond's wireless broadband service, and also Telstra Mobile, which is Australia's largest mobile telephone service provider, in terms of both subscriptions^[3] and coverage^[1]

It was built to replace Telstra's CDMA network which operated from 1999 until 28 April 2008^[4]. Telstra opted to use the 850 MHz band for Next G in preference to the more common 2100 MHz band, since it requires fewer base stations to provide coverage, providing a lower capital cost^[5]. This network was implemented under contract by Ericsson as part of a project internally dubbed "Jersey" and launched on 6 October 2006^[6]. HSPA technology was included in the network to provide Australia's first wide area wireless broadband network. The efficiency of the Next G network and its coverage has been challenged and scrutinised since its launch, requiring Telstra to go back to areas with average coverage, particularly rural towns to improve its coverage footprint. On 18 January 2008, Hon Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communications declined the proposal for Telstra to switch off its CDMA network on 28 January 2008, stating that whilst the Next G network provided coverage equal to or better than the CDMA network, the range of handsets available was not yet satisfactory^[7]. On the 15th of April 2008 the Minister gave approval to close the CDMA network after 28 April 2008^[8]. Telstra closed the network nationally during the early morning hours of April 29, 2008^[9].

While the majority of wireless modems^[10] offered by Telstra allow peak download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbit/s, a new modem by Sierra Wireless was announced that supported increased throughput^[11]. The "USB 306" is marketed and sold by Telstra as the "Telstra Turbo 21 Modem", and was available in limited quantity early 2009. By April 2009 the "Turbo 21" was available to customers and offered peak download speeds of 21 Mbits/s, although actual speeds vary between 550Kbit/s and 8Mbits/s^[12]. As of June 2009 Next G network HSUPA upgrades in selected regional and metropolitan areas, combined with software updates for the "Turbo 21" modem will allow peak uplink speeds of up to 5.76 Mbit/s^[13].

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Telstra

External links

• Telstra Australia
• Next G
• Telstra BigPond Internet