3G coverage in Australia - More at 3G.com.au

3G in Australia

The mobile market of Australia holds at least six network operators and just a few MVNOs. Indisputably, the three giants of the industry are Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

As of last year, all major players (of 3G in Australia) were in the process of coming up with faster 3G network upgrading. Just a few years ago, Telstra gave birth to their new-generation called Next G, that was the very first step of a 3-year master plan set to be the replacement of the current (current then) CDMA and their GSM network (2 years from now).

Optus on the other hand, was not sleeping, and they were doing their own moves to cement their foothold in 3G in Australia. By the end of last year, their 3G HSPA went to 60% of the populace. Their network completion's target year is 2010, and what about Vodafone? December of last year, Australia's Vodafone finished their major "makeover" on their 3G as far as the principal cities were concerned. At that same time, Vodafone disclosed their intents of a roll out of a 3G HSPA (national) enhanced mobile broadband which would give high-speed coverage for ninety-five percent of the country's people, before the coming of 2009.

Now, let me go to some historical accounting on 3G in Australia- Hutchison Telecoms Australia came out with the very first 3G network in the country, this happened on April of 2003. It covered Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane- some of these came later middle of that year. Originally, they had only four handsets- and theywere NEC e606, NEC e808N, Motorola A830, and the Motorola A920.

What about the major players of 3G in Australia? Telstra pushed their analog mobile network in 1987 and 1992. Optus came in second, and Vodafone followed suit just one year after that. Every one of them began rolling out the country-wide digital systems by 1993, and just before the turn of the century, Telstra came out with their second national network, anchored on CDMA. They replaced big parts of the regional/rural analog network which they shut down by the turn of the century.

Vodafone, Optus and Telstra launched respective 3G offerings in 2005, and it could be said that with mobile penetration factors and revnue fluctuations, this particular industry -3G in Australia- is not without roadblocks.