3G Infrastructure Sharing for Australia

Australia's Telstra and Hutchison 3G have signed agreements to establish a new partnership that will deliver a two- year lead on competitor 3G network rollout plans. The partnership will enable Telstra to join Hutchison, currently Australia's only 3G mobile operator, from 1 July 2005.

A small administrative group, 3GIS, will own and operate Hutchison's existing W-CDMA radio access network and fund future network deployment under a network rollout plan agreed by Telstra and Hutchison.

Initial geographical coverage will reflect Hutchison's already existing 2000-base station 3G footprint in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth. 3GIS will manage the Telstra-Hutchison infrastructure expansion first into Canberra and then into regional areas, giving it an established lead of more than two years on the SingTel-Vodafone 3G rollout plan.

In return for 50 per cent ownership of the Hutchison 3G network assets, Telstra will pay Hutchison US$348 million, under a fixed payment schedule, in four installments, starting December 2004.

Telstra and Hutchison have agreed an infrastructure deployment plan for the next two years. The deployment plan, which will be reviewed on a half- year basis, includes expansion into regional areas. The first deployment will be into Canberra and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005.

Telstra and Hutchison will each continue to own separate core networks, application and service platforms, and will conduct their retail 3G businesses independently and in competition with each other."

Posted to the site on 8th December 2004