What good is a brand new 21Mbps beast of a network without some hardcore data devices ready to take advantage of it? Not much good at all, which is why Canada's Bell Mobility is Johnny-on-the-spot this week with a couple hardware announcements. First up, there'll be an aptly named HSPA+ Turbo Stick, which -- you guessed it -- is a USB stick capable of blazing along at HSPA+ speeds. Next up, lucky customers will be getting the MiFi 2372 from Novatel, the North American 3G version that we'd all love for AT&T to launch at some point. Both devices will be swinging by in November, just in time to christen the brand new towers on a high note.

T-Mobile USA's really kicking things into high gear, coming from behind (way behind, actually) on its 3G launch to become the first to bring 21Mbps HSPA+ here -- and possibly the only one to do it, considering that its closest GSM rival is leapfrogging from 7.2Mbps HSPA to LTE. Speaking at 4G World in Chicago, T-Mobile's Neville Ray has gone on record saying that its 3G footprint will be blanketed by HSPA+ next year and is actually already up and running in parts of Philadelphia; amusingly, he was apparently a little weirded out by AT&T's earlier comments at the show that it'd have 90 percent of its 3G coverage upgraded to 7.2Mbps by the end of 2011, suggesting that was slow (we'd agree, but then again, considering how far behind T-Mobile still lags in raw 3G coverage, we're not sure they've got room to talk just yet). If we had to guess, this huge push for mega-fast data has to do with investor discontent on the Deutsche Telekom side of things, so you can bet there are some crossed fingers out in Bellevue as this stuff lights up; now, just give us the world-class phone selection to match and we'll be good to go.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Residents of some of Canada's biggest cities are now sitting on near-LTE speeds thanks to Rogers' continued rollout of 21Mbps HSPA+, a technology it proudly boasts is "replacing 3.5G" and stands a fighting chance of offering real-life double-digit speeds. That's pretty amazing when you consider that a lot of people are still using 768kbps or 1.5Mbps DSL lines in their homes -- ten years ago, we doubt anyone would've predicted that practical wireless speeds would be running neck-and-neck with some of the fastest wireline broadband ISPs have to offer -- but we're certainly not complaining. In addition to Toronto, service is now available in Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal, with a new modem cutely named HSPA+ Rocket coming to take advantage of those speeds on the 28th of the month. Interested parties can preorder now, though: $199.99 or $74.99 on a two-year data contract.

[Via Howard Chui]

It may not have beaten the likes of Australia's Telstra to the 21Mbps mark, but Rogers Wireless has still earned some pretty impressive bragging rights as the first carrier in North America to move on up to HSPA+, which (theoretically) more than doubles the maximum speeds of the current 7.2 Mbps network. According to Rogers, it'll begin to "progressively increase" download speeds starting in August, with the Greater Toronto Area expectedly first on deck to get a taste of all that bandwidth -- although Rogers does say that it'll "expand quickly over the coming months" in other cities across Canada and eventually cover the entire country. Those south of the border shouldn't feel too glum about the situation however, as last we had heard, AT&T was "likely" to bypass HSPA+ altogether and move straight from 7.2Mbps to LTE and the ludicrous speeds it promises.

And here we were envious of the 21Mbps HSPA+ service currently offered by Telstra in Australia. Now we hear that Ericsson will be demonstrating its 56Mbps HSPA multi-carrier MIMO technology at CTIA (using a router, not handset) later this week with scheduled deployment set for 2010. By the end of 2009, Ericsson claims that it will support 42Mbps commercial deployments. All this assumes that carriers hold steady with HSPA and don't jump straight to LTE or WiMax... ok, LTE.