Telstra announces Australia's first LTE-A device

Telstra has launched its first LTE-Advanced device, announcing today the Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced hotspot.

With Telstra promising "all-day endurance", the hotspot device is battery powered and will allow you to connect up to 10 devices.

The hotspot has a colour touchscreen, showing data usage information, Wi-Fi name, signal strength, devices connected and batter levels.

It also you to change the Wi-Fi range and band, and is said to last up to 10 hours of continuous use or 250 days on standby.

"The Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced features a number of innovations including a colour touch screen for managing settings without having to log into PC browser, a data meter integrated with our billing system making it simpler to monitor data usage, and a battery that can get customers through a full work day, plus the commute," said Andrew Volard, Telstra's director of devices.

Along with LTE-A, it also supports Category 4 LTE and 3G Dual Channel technology, as well as dual-band Wi-Fi.

4G goes Advanced

The new 4G technology combines two spectrum bands, 900MHz and 1800MHz, to increase capacity on the network.

"The Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced is also notable for being one of the world's first LTE Advanced-compatible products and it will operate in this mode in some locations where we have a lower 4G band in place for coverage or capacity," Volard said.

"Experience with these initial LTE-A areas on our network will help us refine this technology ahead of its widespread deployment in the coming years."

The Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced hotspot will be available from November 12 on a range of 24-month plans, according to the telco.

Plans will start from $6 monthly device repayments on a $50 mobile broadband plan, with 8GB of monthly data allowance.

• Getting confused with all the different types of LTE? You should read our guide to 4G.