I have had my iPhone 5 all of 2 days and already I'm cranking out the speed tests, the coverage of the Telstra 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network is already in all major cities accross Australia and all major airports.
I'm in Townsville and although the covereage does not quite reach my house, I can get 1 bar sometimes depending where I am in the house.
I have conducted a number of speed tests to show how well the network is working and also what I think can be expected in the future for this network.
| Distance from CBD | Download Speed | Upload Speed | Latency (Ping) | Server | Signal Strength |
| 0 KM | 16645 | 20499 | 69 | Brisbane | Full 5 Bar |
| 0 KM | 25312 | 18794 | 68 | Brisbane | Full 5 Bar |
| 0 KM | 15070 | 19954 | 69 | Brisbane | Full 5 Bar |
| 1 KM | 16600 | 22990 | 64 | Brisbane | 4 Bar |
| 1 KM | 15131 | 16307 | 68 | Brisbane | 4 Bar |
| 1 KM | 25846 | 20216 | 69 | Brisbane | 4 Bar |
| 1 KM | 16726 | 10523 | 64 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 26970 | 20413 | 69 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 28679 | 16720 | 68 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 22651 | 13477 | 61 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 26449 | 17927 | 69 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 27467 | 23767 | 68 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 16276 | 6287 | 68 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 25985 | 11853 | 69 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 25091 | 5787 | 69 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 28544 | 17754 | 69 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 1 KM | 12411 | 31140 | 49 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 2 KM | 15672 | 12928 | 49 | Brisbane | 2 Bar |
| 2 KM | 11764 | 12977 | 48 | Brisbane | 2 Bar |
| 3 KM | 9504 | 5620 | 49 | Brisbane | 2 Bar |
| 3 KM | 6213 | 2843 | 49 | Brisbane | 2 Bar |
| 4 KM | 23850 | 4339 | 47 | Brisbane | 3 Bar |
| 4 KM | 9494 | 1525 | 88 | Brisbane | 2 Bar |
Speeds above shown in *KBPS
So we can see from the results that the speeds vary from the high 20's to the low teens in the actual city itself, and also some high and low results away from the city this was in a shopping center though which I think may have a antenna on the roof. From what I can tell though I get the best speed results when I only have 3 bars of reception which is very strange to me as you would expect to see the best results with the highest amount of reception.
Some tests were also taken whilst I was walking in the street which will have also affected the results but not in the way that I expected, as i was going into an area with more reception, very confusing. I have checked the Telstra 4G Coverage Map Here and I should be getting a good amount of speed from where I am situated but still only getting approx half of what I could be, and it appears that the majority of the coverage is out at sea ??? This will more than likely be for the residents of Magnetic Island but even so its still wierd that I would get better coverage on a boat out at sea than on land.
So what can we expect of the 4G LTE Network in the future? Well just as the 3G network started out really fast in comparison, the 4G LTE network will do the same as more and more people jump on the band wagon and get Mobile Broadband Sticks and 4G LTE capable phones. The network will slow down considerably so the results above whilst seem pretty fast now in 6 - 12 months will more than likely be a lot slower especially on the upload side of things anyway.
So in summary so far I am pretty impressed with the netowrk and the speed of surfing and downloading apps. Lets just hope that the speeds keep up and also that the coverage gets better outside of the city, currently the plans are pretty expensive for the data that you get on the Telstra network but as more and more people conenct up the cost will hopefully reduce and more data will be made available on the network.
