In a world first, Telstra will conduct field trials to increase peak network speeds on its new turbo-charged Next G network by about 300 per cent - to 14.4 Mbps - by early next year.

The trials will go ahead in rural Victoria tomorrow and will help prepare the Next G network for expected boosts in customer demand for data rich applications and new content services like FOXTEL on mobiles.

The faster peak network speeds will give customers increased average user speeds and provide more cell and traffic capacity on Australia's largest and fastest 3G network which already services 98 per cent of the Australian population.

Executive Managing Director, Telstra Wireless, Mr John Gonner, said the field tests will reinforce the global leadership position Telstra has created with the early launch of its super fast Next G network.

"We have broken the distance barrier with the world's geographically largest national 3G network," Mr Gonner said. "We are now in the advanced stage of preparations to be the first to offer our customers even faster, double digit data speeds."

Telstra's Next G customers already experience network download speeds averaging 550 kbps to 1.5 Mbps, and peak network speeds of up to 3.6Mbps.

Now the Next G core network will be upgraded with the most advanced version of Ericsson software which will enable the radio network to operate at 14.4 Mbps peak network speeds and increased peak network uplink speeds from the current 384 Kbps to 1.8 Mbps using High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).

Telstra and Ericsson are using Qualcomm's latest chipsets to test various radio environments and high data speeds to verify through put and reliability.