New Ultimate modem is fastest 3G hotspot money can buy, says Telstra

All of the major carriers offer pocket Wi-Fi modems, which let you share a 3G wireless connection with a phone, laptop or tablet.

The latest is Telstra's Ultimate Mobile Wi-Fi modem, which the carrier claims is the world's fastest of its type. It connects via dual channel HSPA+, meaning in theory, much faster speeds than 3G modems from other carriers.

As is usual with wireless devices, those speeds are likely to vary. Telstra claims up to 20Mbps in Ultimate coverage areas (capital city CBDs, airports, certain regional centres), dropping to up to 8Mbps in capital cities and other metro and regional areas, and 3Mbps in other areas.

The Ultimate Mobile Wi-Fi: Telstra claims up to 3.5 hours battery life

Our initial testing of Telstra's other (not dual channel) 3G Wi-Fi modem, the Elite Mobile Wi-Fi, showed that speed does drop noticeably depending on your coverage area. We managed an average 7.9Mbps in the Sydney CBD, and 4.5Mbps in the suburbs.

Once we connected a couple of iPads, MacBook and iPhone, speeds dropped to around 2Mbps per device.

It's a convenient way to eliminate cables and means you don't have to worry about getting separate SIMs for everything. As we've noted previously, browsing the Internet is much more expensive this way, but you're paying for the convenience.

The Telstra Ultimate Mobile Wi-Fi is on sale for businesses today, and for BigPond customers from July 19.