Wireless broadband and 3G turned on in regional Australia by Vodafone
On the 1st May, ahead of its schedule to provide 3G services to 94 percent by the end of August, Vodafone will be turning on its 3G services at a number of regional centre, which will take its coverage of 3G data and voice to about 80 percent of the country’s population.
Wagga Wagga, Wollongong, Townsville, Toowoomba, Nowra, Newcastle, Mackay, Lismore, Kiama, Hobart, Darwin, Cairns, Byron Bay, Bunbury, Bowral, Ballina, Ballarat, and Albury-Wodonga will be included in the areas that will get the 3G HSPA coverage.
As with the current 3G coverage from Vodafone the new expansion of the network will operate at 2100MHz, although the CTO of Vodafone Australia, And Reeves advised that the expansion to follow this would require either upgrade or installation to around 570 Vodafone base stations and would be operating at 900MHz. Details of where the upgraded services would be provided would be given closer to the launch date he advised.
Wireless broadband HSPA data services at a ‘nominal’ maximum downstream throughput of 14.4Mbps would be provided through the upgraded network although data rate of “typically between 300kbps and 1.5Mbps bursting to 3.6Mbps” would be seen by users in practise said Reeves.
On 4th May new capped plans on 24 month contracts would be available offering handsets, data and voice minutes, which will co-incide with the introduced coverage expansion from Vodafone. Although details are limited Vodafone have said that this will include a $69 plan which will include “a huge monthly data allowance of 1GB.” An upgrade to its iPhone plan that currently offers a free 3G 8GB iPhone for $69 on a 24 month contract with 250MB of data and $340 in calls will be increased to $400 in calls and 1GB in data has, however, been revealed by Vodafone.
Plans for the upgrade were announced in December 2007 by Vodafone with a promise that by December 2008 it would reach 95 percent of the population. At the time Reeves said “We’ll be going flat-out with teams upgrading sites in every state and territory, simultaneously. It’s a massive project but we’re very confident we can complete Vodafone’s national mobile broadband network upgrade within one year.”
In order to make sure that the performance of the network was up to scratch Reeves said that these delays had been necessary saying “When we first launched the 3G network it was the best of any Vodafone network, and their criteria are quite strict. I have said all along we will not launch something to a timeline. We have spent a lot of time with [network supplier] Ericsson to make sure this is network is fully tuned and will deliver a good experience for our customers.”
