MELBOURNE, Australia-Two of Australia’s national mobile carriers will do battle for third-generation (3G) subscribers by mid-year.
Telstra introduced its cdma2000 1x network, an upgrade of its CDMA network, to consumers this week. The operator launched corporate 1x services last December, and now the service is available to consumers as well. The operator is using network equipment from Nortel and the BREW application download service from Qualcomm.
Hutchison Telecommunications said it remains on track to kick off its A$3 billion (US$1.8 billion) 3G mobile network at the end of this month, ensuring an intense consumer marketing battle.
In the meantime, Vodafone is planning to use its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network to launch Vodafone Live! multimedia services during the next few months.
