42 Mbps iPhone?

An unnamed Telstra executive tells Australia-based ChannelNews that the Telstra version of the Apple iPhone will run at download speeds as high as 42 Mbps.

"We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA," the executive is reported as promising. "By Christmas this phone will be capable of 42 Mbps which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world."

Whether fully correct in all details or not is less important than the ultimate reality of the claim. Wireless providers indeed are readying networks that will run that fast, and faster in the future.

Mobile devices capable of communicating that fast might not be as disruptive as mobile voice threatens tethered voice in some markets.

The larger issue is that once mobile broadband connections run that fast, and ultimately faster, some percentage of single-household users might well find mobile broadband a suitable replacement for fixed connections.

My gut level expectation, though, would be that most mobile broadband connections will supplement rather than supplant fixed broadband. There simply are too many other interesting reasons to maintain a fixed broadband connection.

Mobile voice does not suffer from form factor issues that make it a convenient replacement for tethered voice, for example.

Mobile broadband might cannibalize fixed broadband in some cases, but logically as a substitute for PC connections.

An iPhone operating that fast will enable sessions that largely are supplemental to fixed broadband.