VIENNA, Austria-Mobilkom Austria this week became the third European operator and the first Austrian operator to launch commercial third-generation services. Mobilkom Austria announced a “technical launch” of its UMTS network last September, but it did not begin offering commercial service at that time due to a lack of handsets and demand.
However, beginning April 25, the operator will offer the Siemens U10 3G handset priced at $870. Mobilkom said it will make a wider range of handsets from different vendors available in the future.
The 3G service will be free until mid-July. At that point, Mobilkom said 3G voice, short message service and multimedia messaging tariffs will equal current tariffs. Video streaming billing will be based on use, the company said, starting from 50 cents, and customers will pay only for the streaming price with no extra access charges.
The company has content partnerships, including news and soccer offerings, with 95 companies.
The network, supplied by L.M. Ericsson and Nortel Networks Ltd., covers 42 percent of the Austrian population, including the 54 major towns in Austria excluding Salzburg. The operator’s 1,000 UMTS base stations so far have cost a total investment of about $78 million.
“Mobilkom Austria’s multivendor strategy in setting up the 3G network in joint cooperation with Ericsson and Nortel has been instrumental in the rapid and smooth rollout of the first UMTS network in Austria,” the company said.
Mobilkom Austria’s launch follows 3G launches in Italy and the United Kingdom by greenfield operator Hutchison Whampoa-owned subsidiaries earlier this month and the launch by Manx Telecom on the Isle of Man in 2001.
