Telstra 3G Gets Express Card

Written by Adam Gosling

Wednesday, 25 April 2007

Owners of MacBook's and newer x86 laptop personal computers will be pleased with Telstra's BigPond's move to release an Express Mobile Card for its 3G HSDPA wireless broadband access. There are not a lot of laptops around with the Express card slots, but to date there have been even less devices to slot in if you have one and often that's is the only option available on your laptop. The 34mm express cards are priced at A$299 up-front for the device and there is the same choice of plans based on time, speed or downloads as with BigPond's current mobile card pricing. BigPond Group Managing Director, Justin Milne said: "The freedom of BigPond Wireless Broadband and the speed and coverage of Telstra's Next G network are a winning combination." The Telstra Next G network has the largest footprint of Australia's 3G networks and is a must if you plan to venture outside the metro areas of Capital cities, even then there are plenty of places where Telstra is the only 3G option. This even is more the case when it comes to the high-speed HSDPA which has only been rolled out in very select areas by Telstra's competitors. However BigPond mobile broadband customers pay for the privelege of extensive coverage. Competitor Hutchison with its 3 Mobile netowrk recently introduced attractive value priced data bundles, which Telstra has so far refused to match on the basis of its singificantly better netowrk fottprint. Although the exact coverage of Next G remains to be audited it is believed the network area covers more than 98 per cent of the Australian population. "The express card provides access to superfast plans, with download speeds on our Super G Fast plans averaging 550Kbps to 1.5Mbps, and peak network downlink speeds of up to 3.6Mbps. "It is even sturdy enough to be left in a laptop while travelling, and roams to over 30 countries, making it easy to stay connected when you're on the move," Milne said. Related news items Ringtone Service Wins Creativity Award -26/09/2007 Telstra Wireless Hits Speed Record -24/09/2007 New Pearl Colours Coming -18/09/2007 Footy On Your Phone -16/09/2007 Chilli iBurst Increases Download Limits -16/09/2007 Newer news items NetComm Goes 3G With New Range -05/09/2007 Free iBurst Broadband In Sydney -16/08/2007 True WiMAX Reaches Sydney and Melbourne -31/07/2007 Next G Coverage Ahead Of Schedule -18/07/2007 Unwired Meets Funding Commitments Ensuring WiMAX Network -30/04/2007 Older news items Asia Mobile Market Growing at 24%: Frost -02/04/2007 Vodafone Subsidises Data Hardware -31/03/2007 Ericsson Promises 1Mbps GSM Upgrade -14/03/2007 No 3G For Santa Rosa -18/02/2007 Broadcom Could Benefit From Bluetooth Case -04/01/2007 Tag This Now: