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 HSP
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.
You can now buy a “Turbo” (HSPA+) version of the T-Stick for XT, and Keallhauled’s experience has been that it flies (see some benchmarks, and the gear, here).
Vodafone, by contrast, still won’t put a date on its rival HSPA+ launch (both companies 3G networks were originally built with the slower, plain vanilla HSPA).
Once, the two companies were in an arms race to roll-out HSPA+.
Now, Vodafone clearly thinks it has the luxury of time.
A spokesman said it wanted to make sure the upgrade was “reliable” before selling it to the public.
So far, Vodafone’s estimation has been right: in light of recent events, Telecom has indeed been too sheepish to shout about XT’s HSPA+ speed boost.
And the Analysys Mason report, with its finding that the original incarnation of XT was not ready for prime time, hardly helps in that regard.
But on Friday, Dr Reynolds said Telecom, after a four month break, would resume marketing XT “in a few weeks”.
Watch for a some noise about HSPA+ as part of the renewed campaign (which, apparently, will not include any fundamental rebranding - read Hazel Phillips' report here).
