Vodafone Trial 4G Speed In Sydney

• Conducted around Sydney's Eastern suburbs
• Speeds of between 60 and 67MBps
• Typical speeds of around 20-40Mbps on smartphones

Vodafone has begun 4G network trials in Sydney and has posted a speed test screenshot boasting of 66Mbps downlink speeds.

• Conducted around Sydney's Eastern suburbs
• Speeds of between 60 and 67MBps
• Typical speeds of around 20-40Mbps on smartphones

Vodafone has begun 4G network trials in Sydney and has posted a speed test screenshot boasting of 66Mbps downlink speeds.

The telco made the announcement in its blog, saying that in 4G tests conducted around Sydney's Eastern suburbs the team saw average speeds of between 60 and 67MBps. These are easy tests on a near-empty network though, and later in the blog post it refers to typical speeds of around 20-40Mbps on today's smartphones, like the iPhone 5 and Nokia Lumia 920.

Vodafone plans to launch its network with 20MHz of bandwidth within the 1800MHz frequency, a move it believes outshines its competitors Telstra and Optus, who currently offer 4G services with 15MHz and 10MHz bandwidth, respectively.

"The easiest way to explain bandwidth is to compare it to a highway. A 20MHz highway will have twice the number of lanes to carry traffic than a 10MHz highway, meaning if you're a tablet or smartphone user, you're likely to experience less traffic congestion on a bigger (20MHz) highway," said the post's author Alan Didovich.

The telco has lost a large portion of its customers over the last two-years due to its widely-publicised failure to deliver consistent and reliable service on its existing 3G network. It has to watch out for congestion on its 4G network if it wants to make the long road back to reclaiming the confidence in the Australian market.

Vodafone now publishes a weekly network update on its blog, detailing the new infrastructure in its network, which has seen thousands of new base stations added across Australia over the last two-years, and many of its older sites upgraded to the 850MHz 3G frequency; similar to Telstra's Next G network.