At Telecom's quarterly result, chief executive Paul Reynolds said the company's HSPA+ upgrade to XT, originally scheduled to be launched before Christmas, was now complete.

XT was launched with a theoretical top data download speed of 7Mbit/s; on paper HSPA+ triples that, though sensibly Telecom is telling people to expect everyday speeds around 4Mbit/s.

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* No longer any speed limit for today's 7Mbit/s 3G networks; supports downloads up to 10Mbit/s (and 2Mbit/s up)
* still digital camera upgraded from 3.2mP to 5mP
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In a day of tit-for-tat claims over 3G upgrades, Telecom is now pledging to make its entire nationwide XT network ready for HSPA+ by the end of this month.

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The telco is talking a full commercial roll-out, spokeswoman Rebecca Earl told NBR this afternoon.

Vodafone, on the other hand, has pledged to implement its own HSPA+ upgrade over 2010.

Telecom has today launched its “TT-Stick”, the first mobile data device capable of supporting the HSPA+ upgrade to XT, which will allow for mobile downloads of up to a stonking 21Mbit/s. That is, faster than almost any landline broadband connection.

That’s a theoretical top-speed, however. Telecom says to expect an average download speed of 4Mbit/s depending on “variables such as surrounding such as building types and other users on the network.”

Vodafone has said this morning that the first of a trial group of Auckland customers have gone live on its HSPA+ network, and can expect mobile data download speeds of up to 16Mbit/s - that is, the same speed as most get from a landline DSL broadband connection, if they're lucky.

47 Auckland cellsites have been upgraded to the technology, all with fibre backhaul courtesy of the telco's partnership with Vector.

The trial will expand to include 100 Auckland customers.