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Telstra sets stage for LTE pilot August 29th, business customers rejoice
Australia's Telstra has added its name to the ever-growing list of LTE-capable countries with its business customer trials set to start August 29th, 2011. The initial pilot will be available in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane within 5km of the GPO -- we're not really down with the lingo here, but are assuming that's General Post Office -- with other cities coming on-line later this year. The launch device will be a Sierra Wireless device that's capable of both LTE and HSPA so you're not stuck once you get outside the fast net. Conveniently, Rogers' launch device, the AirCard 313U, has a twin named the 320U which just happens to sport LTE in the 1800Mhz bands -- which is what Telstra plans to use -- so if we were betting folks we'd wager at least 100 pennies that this is bound to be it. So, how do you get in on the action? Well, that's the rub: there are only apparently 2000 of these devices for the pilot and only account managed business customers can apply. Plan info sees this thing costing you anywhere from $free to $49 a month on a two-year deal including 7GB of data a month. The good news? LTE's now for real in the land down under. The bad news? While everything else down under is upside down your data rates aren't and we expect you'll be hurting just as much as we are when you start getting those overage bills.
