The Telstra Next G™ network recently declared the world's fastest national mobile broadband network by the Guinness World Records after turning up the peak network speeds to a blistering 21 Mbps.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Telstra CEO, Mr Sol Trujillo, unveiled the world's fastest mobile broadband device - the Turbo 21 modem - which connected to the Telstra Next G™ network and achieved speeds four times faster than those from other Australian telecommunications companies.

The Australian representative of the Guinness World Records, Mr Chris Sheedy, today declared Telstra's achievement as "phenomenal and a real win for everyday Australians and Australian businesses."

"It is great to see an Australian company leading the way globally in the telecommunications industry," Mr Sheedy said. "I've witnessed amazing records around the globe, but this is the first time I've had the honour of announcing a record which delivers such tangible benefits to an entire nation."

Telstra Consumer Executive Director, Ms Jenny Young, said the accolade recognised that Telstra was keeping Australia on top of the world with technology and innovation.

"But the greatest news is that it is Telstra's customers who will be the winners as they will be the first in the world to experience true real-time mobile broadband," Ms Young said. "With the largest range of mobile content in Australia as well as access to unique and unmetered Telstra BigPond® content, the new Turbo 21 modem gives customers access to news, movies, music and sport in real-time.

"These record breaking speeds mean it can take only six seconds to download a two megabyte video from BigPond or four seconds for a song. These new speeds will also be a boost for Australian business that can use the Turbo 21 modem to help save time, cut costs and increase productivity," Ms Young said.

Customers using the Turbo 21 modem in enabled areas will experience download speeds ranging from 550 Kbps to 8 Mbps. This is the second time Telstra has been awarded a Guinness World Record for the fastest national broadband network - the first was in 2007 when Telstra recorded record speeds of 14.4 Mbps.

Telstra Networks and Services Group Managing Director, Mr Michael Rocca, said more record breaking speeds were around the corner.

"We've supercharged the Next G™ network to a peak network speed of 21 Mbps using HSPA+ technology but this is just the beginning," Mr Rocca said. "Later this year, Australians will see peak network downlink speeds increase even further to 42 Mbps on parts of the Telstra Next G™ network."

The Turbo 21 modem is the world's first commercial 21 Mbps peak rated mobile broadband modem and will be available to some business customers from 23 February with consumer and full business availability in the coming months. For more information or to register your interest in being one of the first to purchase the new Turbo 21 modem go to www.bigpond.com/21mbps-expression-of-interest/