Macquarie Park in Sydney is the first suburb getting access to Optus' new 4.5G network that is capable of 1.03Gbps maximum theoretical download speeds. Here's everything you need to know.

Nowadays, almost every smartphone on the market is proudly 4G capable. The majority of mobile phone plans have followed suit - with everyone from Telstra to Vaya offering 4G network connectivity as standard. Consequently, the idea of a "3G-only" plan sounds positively archaic.

However, there are significant benefits to a 3G plan, ranging from cheap prices to generous data allowances of up to 90GB a month. If speed isn't hugely important to you - or you live in an area with flaky 4G coverage - the plans in this roundup could be worth considering.

One of the worst things about moving house is living without a broadband connection and telcos usually take their sweet time to hook you up with that delicious high-speed internet connection.

Now Telstra has released its Gateway Frontier hybrid modem which lets you connect to its 4G mobile network and have the data usage charged to a fixed-line broadband plan while you wait for the service to be connected. It also comes in handy when there is a broadband network outage.

Chinese security researchers have found vulnerabilities in 4G LTE networks that allow hackers to intercept calls and text messages as well block mobile signals to targeted phones. 4G LTE mobile networks are widely used around the world, including in Australia.

Telstra has the fastest mobile data network in Australia but the once-ridiculed Vodafone now matches the dominant telco for high-speed 4G coverage. That's according to a new report by wireless mapping company OpenSignal, which compared the performance of Australia's three largest telcos based on 15 million data samples crowdsourced from 7904 users.

Today, Kogan switched on its 4G network, which will be provided to all pre-paid customers at no extra charge. Assuming your phone is compatible, this should see improvements to speed and reliability across talk and data services. Hurrah! There's also a new "11XL" plan with a whopping 11GB data for under $50 a month.

Optus has become the last of Australia's major telcos to introduce VoLTE — Voice over LTE — which allows customers to make and receive calls over the high-speed 4G Plus network. This saves phones from constantly having to switch between 3G and 4G while making calls, while also lending itself to clearer, more consistent calls.

If you like to stream stuff to your mobile, whether it's YouTube beauty tutorials or movies on Netflix, then we're pretty sure you'll be happy to read these step-by-step tips. They explain how to keep your data usage (and also your battery) down when you use popular services like Netflix, YouTube, Spotify and more.

Telstra's 4G mobile network in capital cities is going to get a lot faster with the company revealing that it will upgrade it to support LTE Category 16 standard devices, which will support theoretical maximum download speeds of 1000Mbps. Read on to find out more.

When Amaysim rolled out its 4G plans last month, one of the annoying features was that the amount of data on its $44.90 Unlimited plan dropped from 5GB to 4GB. That's no longer the case — you now get 5GB with that plan, just like the old days.

If you take a stroll outside today, you'll see a lot of people with mobile phones, phablets or tablets in their hands making calls, using the internet to catch up on the news, watch videos, or interacting with others via Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter.

Amaysim is finally offering 4G access on its plans — but that change does alter some of its most popular offerings. Here's what you need to know and how Amaysim compares to all its major rivals.

We're pretty keen on Globalgig's Roaming SIM card, which is one of the better-value offerings for travellers out there who want to dodge roaming rorts. Now it has an added attraction — an option to access 4G networks in Australia and the UK, which is actually one of the cheaper 4G data packages even if you never head overseas.

If you're looking at buying a new mobile device, especially one that's an import, it's worth knowing which Australian networks it will support. These are all the frequencies currently used in Australia.

One of the more frequent questions we get here at Lifehacker is where to find an affordable 4G service for use as broadband in the home. While still not as cheap as wired ADSL broadband, Vodafone's new 4G WiFi Cube and associated plans are a decent option if you're in a Vodafone 4G coverage area.

With the calendar rolling over to 2015, the 700Mhz spectrum split up between Optus, TPG and Telstra is fully available for carriers to use. We've already seen Optus' plans roll out overnight, and now Telstra's released a fuller picture of its 700Mhz "4GX" plans.

It's the 1st of January — happy new year — and with it, the 700Mhz spectrum that used to be used for analogue TV broadcasts is now open for carriers to utilise. Optus has announced the rollout of more than 270 700Mhz sites across Australia.

Amaysim is one of the most popular prepaid carriers for Lifehacker readers, but there has always been one big complaint: it uses Optus' older 3G network. That's all set to change around April next year, when Amaysim finally introduces 4G plans.

We're big fans of prepaid and no-contract plans here at Lifehacker. The SIM-only plans on offer from Jeenee Mobile stack up pretty well against the competition, offering 4G access to the Optus network and decent data allowances.