Vodafone Australia has appointed Ericsson as the primary hardware and software vendor to support its national mobile broadband rollout, based on High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, which is being fast-tracked for completion in December 2008.
Vodafone and Ericsson will deploy network engineering teams in all states and territories simultaneously. In addition to upgrading all Vodafone 2G sites to 3.5G (HSPA), a significant proportion of high-demand sites in metropolitan areas covered by the Vodafone and Optus joint venture HSPA network sharing agreement will be upgraded to provide higher specification mobile data transmission.
Vodafone is upgrading its 900MHz and 2100MHz mobile network in regional and rural Australia with Ericsson's latest hardware and software, which is rated to the 14.4Mbps maximum theoretical downlink standard and is amongst some of the highest specification equipment currently available for commercial deployment.
Vodafone also announced that it has extended its special promotion on mobile broadband, which offers 5GB for AU$39 (US$3620) per month. Vodafone will make further announcements on the price of mobile broadband plans throughout the year.
"Australia is a big country, so we've taken a pragmatic approach to our mobile broadband network investment and rollout," said Russell Hewitt, CEO at Vodafone Australia. "We're upgrading our network in a way that enables Vodafone to maintain good cost control and consistently market great value deals to our customers. Vodafone's national mobile broadband upgrade will change the way many more Australians look at their mobile phones and laptops."
The national network upgrade will expand Vodafone's mobile broadband coverage to reach 95 per cent of the areas where Australians live and work.
Vodafone will make further announcements throughout 2008 to give customers more detailed information on the schedule of work and mobile broadband launch dates for specific regions.
Posted to the site on 6th March 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/29753.php