In my first tests around the city, my Sierra Wireless Air Card 595, slotted into my notebook, clocked up to 2444Kbit/s (2.5Mbit/s) on Telecom's new EVDO 'rev' a cellular Mobile Broadband network, launching today. Upload speed - they key bit of the 'revision a' network - zoomed at up to 718Kbit/s.

Telecom massages expectations with a modest promise of 800Kbit/s for downloads (same as Vodafone with its 3G Broadband wireless network and its Vodem, though both networks have a theoretical maximum just over 3000Kbit/s (3Mbit/s). At the launch event a Telecom inhouse tech said he'd managed to clock up to 2900Kbit/s.

For upload speed, and average around 444Kbit/s is promised. For lag, claims get more ambitious, with as little as 50ms promised (lower is better on that count). To some degree, latency is always going to be a problem for wireless, and one reason why even though Telecom's rev a and Vodafone's 3G Broadband are now hitting DSL-like speed, you wouldn't use them for heavy duty activities like games (another reason is price: both Vodafone and Telecom charge $49 for 1GB/month, then $10 for your second GB ... a fantastic deal by cellular standards, but pretty so-so if you've got a rev a or 3G Broadband modem attached to your PC).

For now the EVDO rev a network is tightly wrapped around Auckland's CBD in a swathe stretching from the waterfront to spaghetti junction. Telecom says most major metro areas will be covered by June next year, and 70% of the population by Christmas 07.
Anyhow, here's how I went:

ST PAUL STREET
Download: 2444Kbit/s
Upload: 346Kbit/s
Ping: 117ms

MAYORAL DRIVE
Download: 1748Kbit/s
Upload: 683Kbit/s
Ping: ms

LORNE STREET
Download: 2225Kbit/s
Upload: 718bit/s
Ping: ms