Telstra plan to offer a 4G mobile network in Australia from late 2011. Speeds of 60-80 mb/s have been talked about for the new LTE (Long Term Evolution) based network. The announcement was made by Telstra CEO David Thodey at the Mobile World Congress held this week in Barcelona, Spain.

The network will run side by side with Telstra’s existing network, with Telstra offering devices next year which will offer dual mode LTE/HSPA+. It has been disclosed the new 4G network will operate on 1800Mhz frequency which Telstra already owns licenses for.

Initial rollout will be focused on the CBD areas of Australian state capital cities and a selection of regional centres.

Regarding the technology, Telstra CEO David Thodey commented “We see the integration of LTE technology into the Next G™ network as a way to continue to deliver high quality services and meet growing customer demand, and we are very happy to bring this service to Australia thanks to a partnership with our long-time collaborators Ericsson, Sierra Wireless and Qualcomm”.

Telstra have advised they are already in discussions with handset partners such as LG, HTC and Samsung regarding access to dual mode handsets.

Telstra 4G Mobile Broadband Modem