MELBOURNE, Australia-Vodafone announced it will launch its Vodafone Live! service from 21 April. The service offering will include multimedia messaging service (MMS) and polyphonic ring tones. At the same time, Hutchison Telecommunications announced that its third-generation (3G) service will begin 15 April. It will also offer MMS, ring tones, games and e-mail, as well as video conferencing.
Hutchison said its new W-CDMA network will deliver speeds of up to 300 kilobits per second (kbps).
Telstra Mobile Loop launched its 1x wireless service, called Mobile Loop, last week. Telstra claimed its CDMA 1x network will run at 144 kilobits per second. E-mail, games, ring tones, and chat services will be among its initial offerings. Later this year Telstra plans to provide sports, mapping and music services.
Optus launched MMS video messaging last month.
