Most people when they hear the name Telstra, they run. Not only have Telstra got a bad reputation from past customers but their plans are notorious for being over-expensive and not even remotely competitive with other mobile carriers. Up until now I believed the same thing, that was until I tried Telstra's mobile broadband offering.

First, the plan i chose was the 7GB Liberty which I got for $39.95 a month (a $20 discount because of having other services with Telstra). Seeing as the normal price is $59.95, this plan is incredibly expensive compared to what you're getting. The $39.95 price makes it slightly more reasonable. Other carriers like 3/Vodafone and Optus give you between 8 and 12GB for $39.95 a month. The biggest problem with all these carriers is their data services are unreliable and not upto scratch. Using a mobile phone as a modem with 3, I got a maximum speed of around 1mbps but it was usually around 400kpbs. This barely qualifies as broadband and it is painfully slow. So despite the extra data you get, it really isn't worth the trouble. Another issue is the coverage. Both Vodafone and Optus are notorious for having poor signal in amny areas and lots of blackspots, most likely due to their overloaded networks. 3 has decent coverage in metropolitan areas but you get hit with roaming charges if you wander out of their coverage area which is anywhere outside major cities and towns.

With Telstra, they give you a free "Ultimate" wireless modem depending on the plan you get. This modem gives you a theoretical maximum speed of 21mbps. In the real world, this is practically impossible but in practice, my internet speed is at 13mbps and has gone as high as 15mbps. Although you have to be living fairly close to the CBD to get these speeds, outside these areas you will still get upto 8mpbs theoretically. The main difference is that these speeds are much faster than any other networks and you can have internet access almost anywhere in Australia with fairly decent signal and speed. So, is it worth the extra cost? Personally, I think it is since with the other carriers you will end up being frustrated trying to get decent signal and the high data allowance will be useless. The other advantage is that with Telstra there are no excess usage charges as with other carriers, once you reach your monthly allowance it is shaped to 64kpbs.

Recently I was having a little problem with my network card. After evetually fixing the problem I decided to do a speedtest on speedtest.net because thats what everyone uses. I ended up getting some interesting results.
My internet connection is supposed to run at 2Mbps (pretty slow i know). Here is what I got from speedtest.net after three different speedtests:

The famous lab breaks speed records at 100 petabits per second per kilometre over transoceanic distance.

Scientists at Bell Labs have broken records with a new data transfer technique that allows up to ten times the data transmission rates over long distances.

The system has achieved speeds of 100 petabits per second per kilometre over a similar distance to that between Paris and Chicago. The technology will be used to lay much faster international data cables and speed up the global network infrastructure.

“There is no question that this record breaking transmission is a milestone in achieving the network capacity and speeds and a key step forward in satisfying the ongoing explosion in demand,” said Gee Rittenhouse, head of Bell Labs Research.

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“This is a prime example of Bell Labs preeminent research and demonstrates the ability of our researchers to solve complex problems.”

The technique uses standard Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology but adds 155 lasers, each operating at a different frequency and carrying 100 Gigabits of data per second each.

Repeaters, spaced around 90km apart (around 20 per cent further than are currently used), are used to boost the signal and maintain clarity.

Bell Labs also designed receivers which can disentangle the data from the eventual signal contained in the light.

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