telstra

Telstra CEO dishes on superfast wireless

Correction: Telstra says it will not be introducing new 21Mbps-capable handsets at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. The interview has been changed to reflect this.

If you're looking for a super fast wireless network, you might want to head to Australia, where Telstra, the largest wireless operator Down Under, has just launched an upgrade to its 3G wireless network that will offer peak data rates of 21 Megabits per second.

Of course, the 21Mbps downlink speed is a theoretical speed at peak performance. True download speeds will likely top out at between 4Mbps and 6.6Mbps. But … Read more

Report: Telstra eyes new HTC Android phone

HTC, the company that made the G1 phone for T-Mobile, reportedly is working on a new Android-based touch-screen phone for Australian carrier Telstra.

The gadget-focused Smarthouse writes Monday it heard that word from a senior Telstra executive at the just-ended Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

The new touch phone has been developed using a combination of the Google Android operating system and Linux based software written by HTC. The screen is believed to be bigger than current offerings from HTC.

Meanwhile, our colleagues at ZDNet Australia report that Telstra--and other Australian phone companies--aren't showing much interest in what'… Read more

Ballmer dismisses Google Android

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday dismissed the Android mobile operating system, saying he believed that building it was financially unsound for Google.

Speaking at Telstra's annual investment day, Ballmer said designing Android wasn't easy for Google. "They can hire smart guys, hire a lot of people, blah dee blah dee blah, but you know they start out way behind, in a certain sense," he said.

He questioned Google's ability to make money with Android. "I don't really understand their strategy. Maybe somebody else does. If I went to my shareholder meeting, … Read more

Tapping Twitter to monitor broadband outages

A number of Telstra's major broadband rivals have said they have no immediate plans to follow the telecommunications company's lead and use the Twitter microblogging service to monitor service outages and contact customers about support plans, though a closer look shows Optus to be one of the only large carriers not using the tool.

Telstra launched the offering over the past several weeks, garnering a mixed response from Australian users of the service, but rivals Optus, iiNet and Internode said they weren't as keen to offer an official Twitter-based service.

iiNet did admit that it had already … Read more

Beam me up, Telstra

Star Trek lovers drooled earlier this week when Telstra, the Australian phone company, used a hologram to beam its chief technology officer from Melbourne to a business meeting about 460 miles away in Adelaide.

Hugh Bradlow, Telstra's CTO, was filmed in Melbourne by a high-definition video camera. The video was then sent in real time across Telstra's high-speed network to an optical projector in Adelaide where the 3D life-size image appeared and interacted with the audience.

A camera was also set up at the event in Adelaide, so that Bradlow could know who he was talking to and … Read more

Wireless industry going through its AOL phase

CORONADO, Calif.--It's the mid-1990s for the mobile industry: lots of walled gardens, lots of fragmentation, and lots of promise.

We've been writing about the future of mobile computing for years now, and it's no surprise that panelists at the Future in Review conference are eyeing the same space. There's a clear shift going on toward mobile computing, seen both in the PC space, as notebooks overtake designs, and in the evolving handheld/subnotebook space with a surge in interest in smartphones and things like the Eee PC.

The current mobile situation reminds Jonathan Bulkeley, formerly … Read more