Broadband in the sky: Telstra BigPond USB 4G review

Being able to maintain the level of connectedness and the level of service in terms of bandwidth available for tasks like content streaming, videoconferencing and telepresence has become so much more important as more and more of our daily tasks and interactions take place online. Telstra is the first in Australia to take the next step in the neverending upgrade marathon and rolled out its initial ‘4G’ data network late last year. Telstra’s 4G network uses the Long Term Evolution (LTE) specification; a set of specs that define the way high-speed mobile data network is designed and configured. LTE offers some interesting levels of performance, a peak download rate of 300Mbit/s and upload rates of 75Mbit/s as well as sub 5ms latency in the connection for most data packets, depending on the hardware used to connect. LTE is also configured as an IP network. Technically, LTE isn’t 4G at all, as it doesn’t meet the specifications for 4G, such as gigabit speeds (or more accurately, can’t get to gigabit speeds), however it is commonly called 4G where it’s been rolled out, and can be marketed as such, as Telstra has. Telstra has turned on its implementation of LTE with data services available within 5km of the GPO in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth Adelaide, Darwin, Hobart and Canberra, as well as capital city airports. Furthermore, the tech is switched on in 31 region areas within 3km of their POs, with another 50 locations to be turned on by the time you read this. When outside a 4G coverage area, the Telstra 4G USB switches back to the standard 3G data network. Coverage can be checked here. You should definitely check that you can get the benefits before you sign on the dotted line. The first product released by Telstra to work on its 4G network is a USB adapter manufactured by Sierra Wireless and branded by Telstra. The USB adaptor is a nicely designed, if not chunky metal sheathed unit that will definitely take some wear and tear from road warriors. When plugging in the BigPond USB 4G for the first time, software stored on the USB 4G device is prompted to run, installing the requisite drivers and connection program required to control it. The software is quite simple, and the only button you’ll spend any time pressing is connect/disconnect. There are a few details about your connection quality, and it lets you know if you’ve connected via 4G or 3G, but it’s not a complex piece of software by any stretch. We tested the Telstra BigPond USB 4G in a few different areas in Sydney. Within 4G connection areas we could consistently speed-test the service between 25Mbit/s and 34Mbit/s download speeds with latency around the 30-40ms mark in good reception spots. Further away (such as in Sydney’s inner west, where 4G coverage is listed but is not close to a cell) we recorded speeds from 6Mbit/s to 11Mbit/s. In context, our slowest 4G result in a ‘good’ reception area is faster than the fastest theoretical ADSL2+ connection speed. It sure is snappy if you’re in the right spot. Once you drift back to a 3G network area the honeymoon ends, with tested speeds of 5.1Mbit as our max rate.