I couldn’t believe my luck when Kristen Boschma from Telstra asked me to review their new high speed wireless internet.  As someone who’s business is based around the internet a fast internet connection makes your life a lot easier and your day a lot happier.

First impressions of the USB modem was that it’s a smart looking product, with a nice stainless steel USB connection.  Not sure if this makes it work any better or faster, but let’s face it looks count.  I also liked the size, whilst still compact it’s bigger than normal USB modems so it doesn’t get lost at the bottom of my handbag which is a common issue with my current Vodafone USB modem.

My first chance to test the new Telstra Ultimate Mobile Broadband USB Modem was when we visited a local hotel for a weekend.  Whilst I tried not to work, my schedule was hectic and I needed to do a few things on the internet in between the eating, drinking and lying by the pool.

Of course without reading any instructions I plugged in it and within 3 minutes my internet was connected.  Very easy, it did all the work, I just entering in the pin number and the rest was done.  I didn’t like the fact that it installed an extra Telstra My Place option (a pop up of some description) but I’m sure if I could have unticked this box during the installation process.

Since it claimed to be the fastest wireless internet, I decided to conduct a speed test.  Based on the Gold Coast we are 80km from the CBD of Brisbane, so I wasn’t expecting speeds of 10 Mbps or 20 Mbps.  Generally I get about 1 Mbps or 1.5 Mbps from Vodafone around the Gold Coast, that is of course assuming you can get coverage, but more on that later.

In Broadbeach I was getting around 3.5 Mbps.  Almost three times faster than other wireless internet on the Gold Coast.  When I returned home I run a quick speed test.   Based in Ashmore, I compared my ADSL internet (wireless to by laptop) and got speeds of 3.83 Mbps.  Fairly average.  Then I plug-in the Telstra Ultimate Mobile Broadband USB and got a whopping speed of 14.03 Mbps.  Now I was impressed!!

The other benefit I found was when I was running a 3 hour workshop on Social Media.  The workshop was due to start at 9am, however I had the internet connected and everything set up by 8:15am.  By the time I was packing up at 1pm, the internet was still connected.  No drop outs at all.  My usual wireless internet is Vodafone and if you are based on the Gold Coast you would know that your coverage isn’t the best, so between no coverage and a very weak signal, drop outs are very frequent.

I’m looking forward to ditching my Vodafone wireless and continuing to use my new Telstra Ultimate Broadband USB Modem.

Pricing and availability for business customers

The Telstra Ultimate™ USB can be purchased in conjunction with a range of Telstra Business mobile broadband plans including for $0 upfront with a $39 plan with 3GB included data over 24 months (minimum total cost $936) or outright for $299.

For more information, including Ultimate speed coverage areas, visit: www.telstra.com/business/ultimate.