Want to run a Miley Cyrus fansite over a data card? We might recommend you emigrate to Australia, where Telstra has just upgraded its already-impressive HSPA+ network to a whopping 5.8Mbps on the uplink, which it estimates means that customers could see speeds as high as 3Mbps in real-world use. In conjunction with the upgrade, the carrier's also letting customers know that its Turbo 21 USB modem can be updated to take advantage of the higher data rate, which refreshingly means you won't have to plunk down for any new hardware. Cheers to that.

At Mobile World Congress, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega had mentioned to us that AT&T was "better off" than Verizon thanks to 3GPP Release 7's capabilities to extend existing HSPA infrastructure through to 21Mbps and beyond by using the wonders of HSPA+ before the company would need to bite the bullet and get moving on LTE. We're not sure whether Big Red's aggressive LTE plans have AT&T rethinking its strategy or if it just wants to save time, money, and energy by avoiding yet another interim rollout, but we're now being told by a company spokesman that "it's likely that timelines for LTE standards will lead us directly from 7.2 to LTE." He mentions that HSPA+ is "still an option," but at any rate, this is a markedly different tone than we've heard in the past -- even as late as last month -- and if this means we're getting LTE even a single day sooner, we're all for it.

We knew AT&T had an HSPA upgrade in the works, and now the company has announced its plans, with initial rollout beginning later this year and reaching completion in 2011. That will overlap only slightly with LTE, which AT&T plans to put into trials in 2010 and start melting our faces in 2011. The HSPA upgrade takes the network from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps in theoretical speed, and AT&T also plans to nearly double the amount of wireless spectrum it dedicates to 3G in metropolitan areas -- which should come as a relief to city dwellers who haven't managed more than a couple minutes of sustained conversation since mid-2008. To support the increased bandwidth of HSPA, AT&T also plans on adding thousands of new cell site backhaul connections, while also rolling out 3G service to 20 new metro areas and deploying 2,100 new cell sites in total. HSPA-sporting mobile data cards and smartphones will be available "later this year."

So there's this awesome new LG handset in the works for Vodafone and T-Mobile (probably Europe, but we're not sure) -- we haven't seen it, but from LG's published specs, we know it's got a whopper 800 x 345 display, HSDPA, and likely a 5 megapixel camera. That's really nothing to write home about by 2009 high-end LG standards, but the mayhem begins when you realize that there's also a version of this sucker specified for Telus. Yes, Telus -- the Canadian CDMA carrier that is currently in the process of building out its HSPA network but doesn't have any commercial markets live yet. With HSDPA in tow, could the BL40 (which we still haven't seen, by the way) be one of the carrier's inaugural GSM devices? Seems likely, and with 800 x 345 pixels front and center, we're cautiously optimistic that it's a strong choice.

[Via MobileSyrup]

If you've never heard of CSoHSPA, we can't say we blame you, but the concept is surprisingly simple, the benefits are pretty clear, and odds are good the technology's coming to a network near you. Short for Circuit Switched over HSPA, the standard -- part of 3GPP Release 7 which covers HSPA+ -- seeks to improve handset battery life and significantly boost network capacity (something many carriers desperately need) by moving voice from the traditional circuit switched voice channel found on legacy GSM networks to packet data. This means that all forms of connectivity your phone exchanges with the network get treated as the same payloads of bytes -- the same concept employed by any VoIP system and the strategy employed by LTE, WiMAX, and some EV-DO networks -- so the old-school voice channel can be repurposed for pure data. Long story short, phones end up running longer on a charge, networks end up with more capacity, and everyone sleeps a little easier. Nokia Siemens and Finnish carrier Elisa have just completed the world's first CSoHSPA call, which is a nice landmark on the road to wide-scale HSPA+ deployment; the technology is essentially a software upgrade for a lot of existing infrastructure, so we'd expect this to get rolled out all over the place as long as handsets support it in kind.

In what has become an all-too-common theme across the telecom and wireless industries -- and just about every industry, for that matter -- Telus cut 1,160 employees from its payroll in the first quarter, a move that it says cost it roughly $28 million in restructuring fees. If it's any consolation, though, the reduction's being offset by capital investment in excess of CAD $2 billion this year to ramp up its 3G infrastructure buildout that'll ultimately see Rogers-fighting HSPA spectrum go live as an interim step on the way to LTE. With $700 million getting spent in Alberta, $500 million in British Columbia, and $300 million in Ontario, that work will undoubtedly create some jobs, so there's your silver lining right there.

[Via MobileSyrup]

Check it suits, Nokia just spat another E-series device into the boardroom. What the E52 lacks in looks it makes up for with battery specs: 8 hours of talk or 23 days of standby. Otherwise it's an A-GPS, WiFi, HSUPA data, and 3.2 megapixel candybar with generous support for your IT environments via built-in mobile VPN, Call Connect, and choice of corporate email options including Nokia Messaging, Exchange, and yes, Lotus Notes too for all you accountants. Ships in the second half of the year for €245, pre-subsidy and pre-tax. Get your corporate funk on with the video after the break.

21Mbps down seems a bit sluggish compared to Ericsson's 56Mbps HSPA+ demonstration, but it's still pretty speedy compared to what's offered in most corners of the globe. As of this week, CSL Limited customers in Hong Kong have access to the same Next G network that Aussies have been enjoying for months on end through Telstra. The launch marks the world's first SDR-based HSPA+ All IP network in Hong Kong, and if you're looking for new devices to take advantage, the operator's currently offering the HP Mini 1110TU (Mobile Broadband Edition), as well as the Express 21 USB modem. Oh, and we totally can't close this post without quoting the new service's motto: "Next G: Time is the Enemy, Fight Back."

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.

The Aussies are laughing all the way to 21Mbps, sure, but where's a denizen of the Old World supposed to get their fix? Austria's mobilkom has officially become the first European carrier to launch HSPA+ service, using Ericsson-sourced equipment to offer peak data rates up to the same 21Mbps offered by Telstra. What's more, Ericsson says they'll hit 28Mbps "in the course of the year," so the only challenge left on the table is getting a whole bunch of devices that can take advantage -- USB sticks and ExpressCards are a forgone conclusion, sure, but where are our blazing handsets with five-minute battery lives?

[Via SlashPhone]

Telstra loves to brag about being the "world's fastest national mobile broadband network." And they should after a recent 21Mbps (theoretical) upgrade to its Next G network in Australia's major cities. Of course real-world performance won't come close to that but the PC-only, Telstra Turbo 21 USB modem likely smokes any over the air setup you've been using. ZDNET tested the Turbo 21 in Sydney and found performance landing on "the right side of excellent." Performance peaked at about 6Mbps but this was variable at best. Still it was the fastest modem that ZDNET's seen in their testing. Yours, or more likely your company's, for AU$499 or AU$299 when bundled with a data pack.

Read -- Turbo 21 press release
Read -- Turbo 21 review

While waiting for a Caribbean cruise liner to set sail from the Port of Miami last November, a Chicago native with an AT&T wireless card and Slingbox decided to catch the Bears vs. Lions football game on his laptop. The end result? A $28,067.31 bill from for international data charges, despite the ship never leaving the harbor. Apparently the card was picking up a signal it shouldn't have, and while the bill was eventually dropped to $290.65 after a considerable number of calls to customer service, let that be a warning to mobile users traveling on the fringe of international roaming areas -- and in case you were wondering, the Bears ended up winning 27 to 23.

[Via The Register]

Shoehorned in with its Samsung Memoir announcement today, T-Mobile has announced that it plans on covering 200 million Americans with its AWS 3G network by the end of 2009. That's up from "more than 100 million people" at the end of 2008, so even if you consider "more than 100 million" to be as high as 150 million, that's still a nice boost in HSPA coverage year over year. And considering that we're expecting a barrage of new G series (or at least one or two of 'em) to launch on T-Mob in '09, we'll take just as much 3G as we can get.

We can already tell that this naming thing is getting out of hand, but for all intents and purposes, the handset you see above is the same HTC G2 we've seen hosted up in T-Mobile documentation and those gnarly in the wild snaps. Now, according to some very believable Vodafone snippets, we're being told that this here handset will launch exclusively on the aforesaid carrier as the Magic, bringing with it a 3.2 megapixel camera, HSPA, WiFi and GPS. Also of note, Cupcake will be loaded on from day one, though there's no word on pricing and availability just yet.

Leave Ericsson alone for five seconds, and it goes and makes the technology it was just bragging about seem archaic. Just in case Telstra's 21Mbps Next G network seemed a bit -- how do you say, sluggish? -- Ericsson will be showcasing a new approach that enables peak downlink data rates of 42Mbps at Mobile World Congress. In order to achieve such tremendous speeds, it will rely on its so-called multi-carrier technology, which is the next (or is that next-next?) generation of HSPA. The secret? It allows users to "receive data simultaneously on two frequency channels," which doubles the data rate in the coverage area of an HSPA network and on the cell edge. The best part of all this isn't that you can one day look forward to crushing your cable modem with a wireless USB stick, it's that "one day" will be ready to happen before the dawn of 2010. Huzzah!

[Via phonescoop, image courtesy of TornadoChaser]