Telstra announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that they plan on hitting up some of that 4G-goodness later this year by launching an LTE network in capital cities and certain regional hubs around Australia using the 1800MHz spectrum.

David Thodey announced the plan, which is obviously designed to meet the ever-increasing demand of mobile data around city areas. The new network will not replace the HSPA NextG network, but instead it will work alongside it. Telstra's first LTE product - a Sierra Wireless USB dongle - will work on both the LTE 1800MHz spectrum and the NextG's 850MHz band.

There aren't any figures yet, but a Telstra spokesperson has said that the upgrade is more about adding capacity rather than speed, keeping in mind that rials last year showed downloads at nearly 150Mbps, so you can only expect good things! Given that Telstra already runs a world-class network, this upgrade is only continuing Telstra's commitment to Australia's mobile network.