What do you get when you put engineers from Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Netgear in a room and tell them to create the fastest mobile network on the planet and a device to use it? You get Telstra’s 4G Gigabit LTE network and Netgear’s Nighthawk M1 mobile router.

Active now in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne CBDs and rolling out from there as demand grows, the Telstra Gigabit LTE network is the fastest in Australia and right now without question the fastest in the world.

Using the Telstra 4GX network Ericsson have created the technology to transmit and receive from the towers at speeds previously only dreamt of, and then Netgear and Qualcomm get together to create a mobile router that can do likewise on that very network.

It’s quite hard to explain really, but think of it this way – it’s an evolution of 4G. This network caters to a growing demand for speed on the go, while we build up to a 5G network in the years ahead.

If 4G is a straight modern single lane freeway, then Telstra’s 4GX might be seen as a multi-lane addition to that freeway allowing more traffic and greater speed.

Gigabit LTE is like adding several decks of that same freeway to ensure that vast amounts of traffic can speed along and at the same time the technology also allows for the data packets to travel closer together freeing up valuable space on the highway for more users.

In real-world examples shown to me today at Telstra’s Sydney head office, I saw examples of hundreds of megabytes of files syncing from the cloud in no time compared to a relatively fast 4G connection alongside it. While the outcome is the same, because it’s achieved in a shorter amount of time the network congestion is actually lower.

I saw demonstrations of the speed in the mid to high 900Mbps while upload speeds have a theoretical maximum of 150Mbps I witnessed 93Mbps in one example alone.

Netgear’s Nighthawk M1 mobile router is capable of these speeds thanks to the Qualcomm processor inside and the multiple antenna’s too.

Why? Why not! One example is streaming – we watched a live 360 degree video stream which was broadcast using Gigabit LTE on the Nighthawk M1 and received using the same technology. Likewise for those who rely on the cloud, there are huge advantages to faster synchronisation.

Amazingly, the router has a battery life of some 16 hours, and can even charge your phone on the go.

All this – and it’s working right now. Not a concept. It’s ready.

The Netgear Nighthawk M1 will go on sale in February through Telstra for $350, who will also announce new data plans for their customers in conjunction with the launch. Expect yet more data for your dollar, though when chewing through it at Gigabit speeds – you better be careful!

And yep, we’re the first in the world. Telstra leading the world in emerging mobile technology and speeds.