Next G modems coming soon from Sierra with speeds of up to 21Mbps

With claims of it being the first of its kind, mobile broadband USB modems that will support HSPA+ networks and will be able to support up to 21Mbps download speeds and 5.76Mbps upload speeds have been launched by Sierra Wireless.

The Next G network was upgraded in the later part of last year and Sierra is one of the main suppliers of modems for this network. A launch of commercial services that will exploit this upgrade will be made very soon by Telstra. A press conference promising that BigPond will make Australia “the fastest address in the World” and will “cement Australia as a global leader in telecommunications,” will be held in Sydney on the 17th February.

On the 6th November last year Telstra provided a demonstration using Sierra modems of 21Mbps HSPA+ on Next G.

Commercial available of its products has, however, not been promised until some time “within the first half of this year” according to Sierra. Two USB modems have been announced by Sierra: the USB 306 operates on the Next G band of 850MHz and the 1900MHz and 2100MHz bands, and is designed for the Asia-Pacific and North American regions; and the USB 307, which operates on the 900MHz and 2100MHz bands and is optimised for Europe.

Sierra’s TRU-Install, which loads Sierra Wireless Watcher connection manager software and device drivers from the modem onto the computer when the modem is plugged in for the first time, will come on both devices. Also, to assist with file transfers while on-the-move and to provide storage space with models will be equipped with a microSD card slot.

Both of these devices will be backwards compatible with GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSPA networks and will support peak download speeds of 21Mbps and upload speeds of 5.76Mbps.