Telstra Corp Ltd has reportedly begun trials of new mobile technology that is being billed as capable of providing download speeds as much as nine times faster than the coalition's national broadband network (NBN) plan would deliver, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Labor's NBN plan offered customers up to 100 megabits per second, while the coalition is pushing a plan that would guarantee speeds of 50 mbps by 2019.
Telstra plans involve using a technology called “carrier aggregation” aimed at delivering peak mobile download speeds of up to 450 mbps, according to a Telstra strategy briefing cited by the AFR.
Telstra's current 4G wireless network delivers download speeds of up to 40 mbps.
During the federal election campaign, the coalition argued that the prospect of super-fast mobile technology did not threaten to undermine the NBN, but rather bolstered their plan for a cheaper network because the rise of mobile technology reduced the need for a large-scale network.