Delimiter » 3g

Virgin ups quota on postpaid broadband

Vijith Vazhayil, Chillibreeze — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 00:57:23 +0000

news Optus subsidiary, Virgin Mobile, has announced it is refreshing its suite of Postpaid Mobile Broadband plans.

According to a media release issued by the company yesterday, Virgin Mobile has increased the data allocation on all its 12-month contract plans. The $19 plan now has a data allowance of 2GB as against 1.5GB, at minimum cost $228, while the $29, $39, $59 plans come with 6, 12 and 18GB data, at minimum costs of $348, $468 and $708 respectively, in place of the earlier 4GB, 10GB, and 14GB data per month allowance.The $49 for 12GB plan has been dropped by Virgin.

Virgin claimed that according to its research, 75 percent of Australians were dissatisfied with their current mobile broadband plan and wanted better value. “Aussies have been calling out for better value Mobile Broadband plans and we’re pleased to be able to deliver outstanding value and great coverage across Australia on the [Optus] Open Network, as well as a host of other Virgin Mobile benefits,” said Virgin Mobile marketing director David Scribner.

The $19 plan comes with the USB dongle only; a Wi-Fi hotspot device costs an extra $7 per month. A free USB modem or Wi-Fi hotspot is included in all plans $29 and above. Two months’ free access is available with the Wi-Fi modem on the $29 plan; three months’ free access is available with the USB modem on the $29 plan; three months’ free access fee is also available with any modem on the $39 and $59 plans. Customers can avail themselves of the free access offer till April 30th. This offer is for new services and is only available online.

There are no excess data charges associated with any of the plans. Once a customer exceeds the monthly quota, Virgin throttles speed to 128Kbps for the next 250MB and beyond that, service is blocked until the first day of the next usage period, unless a data top-up is done. All usage is charged per kilobyte and not per megabyte, so there is no payment for unused data.

Lifehacker reported that the revamped plans would apply for both new and existing contract customers.Though members would be automatically rolled over “in the coming months”, it was possible for the change to be applied the same day by calling 1300 555 100. The new plans were not available in the Northern Territory and Tasmania (except for Hobart). Further details are available at Virgin’s website.

Kindle Touch 3G goes on sale to Australians

Asha Jacob, Chillibreeze — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:02:12 +0000

news Online retailer Amazon.com has announced that the Kindle Touch 3G is available for pre-order online to customers in over 175 countries and territories, including Australia. The Kindle Touch 3G will be shipped to customers from April 27.

The announcement was made in a press release from Amazon which also highlighted the features of this new e-reader.

The Kindle Touch 3G is ready to use right out of the box without the hassle of a setup or software installation. As a top of the line e-reader, Kindle Touch 3G offers the same design and features as those of Kindle Touch with the added convenience of free 3G access to download books. Since 3G works globally, the inbuilt Wi-Fi in the latest Kindle guarantees connection to Wi-Fi hotspots anywhere in the world. Wireless delivery ensures book downloads in 60 seconds eliminating the need for a computer and in addition, free cloud storage is offered for all Amazon content downloaded.

Amazon claims that Kindle Touch 3G can hold 3,000 books backed by a two-month battery life. Customers have access to over 1 million books in the Kindle Store, including international bestsellers, newspapers and magazines. A touchscreen is used to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes. Kindle books can be read on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, PC, Mac and Android-based devices apart from the Kindle itself. According to Amazon, there are no annual contracts or monthly fees to be paid on purchase of Kindle Touch 3G.

With the new X-Ray feature in the Kindle Touch 3G, readers can explore the “bones of a book” with a single tap – this refers to all the passages in a book that mention ideas, fictional characters, historical figures, places or topics of interest, as well as detailed descriptions from Wikipedia and Shelfari.

The other feature is the new EasyReach that makes it possible to turn pages, again with a tap – so the Kindle can be held in either hand. A comfortable read is ensured through eight different sizes and three font styles. It is also possible to e-mail personal documents and PDFs direct to the Kindle and read them on-the-go. Kindle Touch 3G is available in multiple languages – German, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and American and British English. It comes with built-in speakers offering support for text-to-speech (Kindle can read English-language content out loud), audio books and mp3 support.

Last year when Amazon announced a new range of Kindle devices, they were mostly available to US residents only. At that time, the only product which was available outside the US was the entry-level Kindle.

Dave Limp, vice president, Amazon Kindle, while talking about Kindle Touch 3G said: “Customers love the electronic ink display that reads like paper, with no glare, even in bright daylight, the unparalleled convenience of 3G for downloading books in less than 60 seconds, and with our new touch technology and a unique combination of features you won’t find anywhere else – Text-to-Speech and our new technologies EasyReach and X-ray – we’ve made it easier than ever to read and explore Kindle with one hand.”

The Amazon website shows a pre-order price of $189.00 for the Kindle Touch 3G.

Image credit: Amazon

Telstra downplays 3G CBD issue

Renai LeMay — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:03:56 +0000

news The nation’s largest telco Telstra has sought to downplay issues being experienced by customers using its 3G mobile network in central business district areas, stating that it’s happy with how the network is performing but acknowledging that there are pockets in the network that could get congested and were scheduled to be upgraded.

After an article published on the issue last week, many Telstra customers came forward to highlight the issue, which is seeing customers in the CBD areas of major cities like Sydney and Melbourne unable to achieve necessary throughput on their smartphone, tablet or USB modem devices to access the Internet, despite having full mobile reception on those devices.

In an interview late last week, the company’s executive direct of networks & access technologies Mike Wright said Telstra was “very happy” with the network’s continuing performance, despite some problem areas with customers. Wright said he “absolutely recognised” that there were some trouble spots with individual cells within the network, but that the telco continually monitored the network with a view to finding and upgrading those areas experiencing congestion. “When we find it, we target it,” he said. “Our objective is to make sure that people aren’t inconvenienced.”

The executive said Telstra tracked the performance of every cell in its network. As traffic capacity moved up, the telco started planning to address the situation as each cell hit its limits. However, occasionally when things changed quickly Telstra’s “crystal ball” let it down, Wright said. “We’re not sitting here ignoring them.”

Wright pointed out that Telstra was continuing to bolt on new customers onto Next G at a rate of knots. In early February at the company’s financial results briefing session, it revealed that it had added some 774,000 new customers to its mobile network over the last six months of 2011 — continuing a massive growth trend experienced in the first half of that year.

“There’s a percentage of cells that we’re still playing catch-up with — pockets,” Wright said. “If you look at a national average, you do get individual ones. Drop-out rates are still quite stable; a few more cells need upgrades.”

Some customers had highlighted the fact that Telstra had offered a series of remarkable early deals on the fledgling 4G portions of its network, which operate in CBD areas on a different segment of wireless spectrum (1800MHz), compared with the 850MHz band used by the company’s existing 3G portion of its Next G network, which the overwhelming majority of customers are using.

Those customers had speculated that Telstra was attempting to shift heavy or regular mobile broadband users onto the 4G portion of its network in an attempt to free up capacity on its 3G network. However, although Wright acknowledged, as he has done in the past, that the rollout of 4G capabilities on Telstra’s network was partially designed to free up capacity, he said the new deals weren’t driven by engineering needs.

“That’s more from a marketing [angle] — not an engineering-driven thing,” he said, noting that Telstra needed to demonstrate the performance of 4G, which offers dramatically enhanced speeds over 3G, so that more people understood it. “Any sort of promotional thing is just that — it’s everybody’s job to promote the benefits.”

Telstra has already connected over 100,000 new devices to the 4G components of its network — despite the fact that only one handset supporting the network is on sale, and having only launched the network last year.

There are some specific issues which may be affecting some customers in CBD areas, according to Wright — which may have more to do with end user equipment than Telstra’s mobile network. For example, the executive said he was aware that some devices were roaming onto the 3GIS network which Telstra launched in partnership with then-mobile telco Hutchison (which has since merged with Vodafone). That network, which supports vastly reduced speeds compared with Next G, is slated to be shut down shortly, with its spectrum to be re-allocated.

“One of the things you might try — try doing a network scan and choosing the Telstra network,” said Wright, noting that a small percentage of users may be able to resolve their problems that way. In addition, other users may be able to return their connection to normal by switching their device off and on again. “Those things you hold in your hand are only software — sometimes turning the power on or off returns service,” the executive said.

Ultimately, Telstra’s Next G is a large and complex beast, and as with any mobile network, congestion will differ in different locations across geographies. Wright emphasised that Telstra did take “every single customer experience” on board, and encouraged customers to contact the telco directly with problems. In some cases, it could keep them directly informed when a certain area of its network was upgraded, he said. “If we can get that level of granularity for customers, we’re certainly interested in investigating the issue,” he said. “We’ll usually try and look into it.”

For example, Telstra closely examined areas in the Sydney CBD in which Delimiter itself experienced problems last week. “We couldn’t replicate your experience, except for one cell, which is scheduled for upgrade next week,” Wright said.

In addition, the executive also emphasised that Telstra did have a forward road map for continuing to invest in Next G. Over the past few weeks, it had upgraded ten cells in the Melbourne area, he said. And it was already planning for the future, when it would be able to access additional spectrum in the 700MHz and 2600MHz spectrum bands following government allocations in the area. 4G/LTE was also in the process of being rolled out more widely, and the company is also looking at the next step — LTE Advanced.

“We believe we have a strategy and a plan; we’ve been pleasantly surprised at the success of the network,” Wright said.

opinion/analysis
Do I believe Wright when he talks about the strength of Next G in the CBD areas of metropolitan areas? Yes, I do. The executive has never been anything but forthright with me over the years, and I know that he and his team are obsessively interested in tuning Next G to get the best performance out of it constantly. This is a labor of love for these engineers at Telstra.

However, I also believe Delimiter’s readers when they say they’ve been experiencing many more problems on Next G recently than they had been in the past. A year or so ago, I didn’t hear any complaints about Next G. Over the past few months I’ve heard plenty.

As always, the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. Next G as a whole is definitely still performing acceptably, especially outside CBD areas. However, Wright’s view of the network is a 10,000 foot one, and I’m sure that problem spots are also popping up more frequently, and lasting longer until Telstra fixes them, now that Telstra has a few extra million users on the network.

That’s completely understandable. The extra load which has been thrust on Next G over the past year or so is simply incredible, and it’s a testament to Telstra’s team and network design that it has been able to keep up with the demand without completely buckling. God knows the networks of Vodafone and Optus couldn’t boast the same when they went under extreme loads over the past few years. Right now, Wright’s job description is basically that of playing Chief Whack-a-Mole for Telstra. Network troublespots will arise regularly, and he will dispatch a team to upgrade a cell. Then a new troublespot will arise, and he will smack that one down. Only time will tell how long this game will go on, and if it will ever completely stabilise. Telstra’s more or less holding its own for now. Let’s hope it can continue to.

Image credit: Telstra

Telstra hosts midnight iPad launch tonight

Renai LeMay — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:27:17 +0000

news The nation’s largest telco Telstra has revealed plans to open its flagship downtown retail stores in Sydney and Melbourne at midnight tonight (Thursday night) to start selling Apple’s new iPad tablet, eight hours ahead of planned retail launches by Optus, Vodafone and Apple itself.

“Telstra is throwing open the doors to its Sydney (George St) and Melbourne (Bourke St) flagship stores at 12.01am Friday morning so that customers will have the chance to get in early to purchase the new iPad,” a spokesperson for the company said in an email this morning. “Select” Telstra retail stores will also be selling the iPad from Friday morning, they added.

Late last night, Apple issued a media release stating that it would open its Australian stores tomorrow morning at 8AM Australian time for the launch, while Vodafone and Optus have also both issued statements noting that they would be selling the iPad from Friday morning — although neither appear to be planning midnight launch events at this point. Apple retailer Next Byte will also have stock of the new iPad and will have stores open even before Apple itself — at 7:30AM in some cases.

During previous Apple launches it had become something of a tradition for the Australian mobile telcos to hold midnight launch events for the devices, with customers being showered with food and drink as well as fre live music by popular bands and the chance to meet celebrities at the launches. However, this year the launch of the new iPad appears to have become a more muted affair. A line has formed in front of Apple’s Sydney store to buy the new iPad, but the first customer in line is actually being paid to line up as part of a publicity stunt for a local startup.

Apple had already released stand-alone Australian pricing for the iPad. However, over the past several days Telstra, Optus and Vodafone have also released month to month pricing plans for the tablet, which come bundled with the device itself and network access.

Telstra’s plans come with 1GB to 15GB of data included, and range from $48 per month to $107 per month, depending on whether customers buy a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB iPad. Optus has plans with 500MB to 16GB of data included, and cost between $38 and $79 per month — broadly, appearing to be cheaper than Telstra’s options. The SingTel subsidiary also has different options for small business customers.

Vodafone’s plans come with data inclusions from 2GB to 18GB, and range in price from $47 to $96 per month. The company also has 12 month plans.

From Apple directly in Australia, the new Wi-Fi-only versions of the iPad will be available in black or white on Friday 16 March for a recommended retail price of $539 (for the 16GB model), $649 (for the 32GB model) and $759 (for the 64GB model). The version of the iPad also supporting 3G/4G mobile broadband will be available for a RRP of $679 (for the 16GB model), $789 (for the 32GB model) and $899 (for the 64GB model). The device will be sold through Apple’s online and retail stores and “select” authorised resellers. Apple has opened pre-orders for the device today.

Apple has also issued a price cut on its iPad 2 model, which will now be sold at $429 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $569 for the model also supporting 3G.

“We’ve almost completed the rollout of our new 850MHz network built specifically for devices like the new iPad. Also, when customers buy an iPad plan it’s backed by our new network guarantee to ensure customers are happy on our new network,” said Noel Hamill, director of marketing and sales at Vodafone. “Vodafone customers can count on us to deliver competitive plans and great coverage so they can really explore the amazing new iPad and all it can do.”

Gavin Williams, Consumer Marketing Director, Optus said: “The Optus Open Network, in conjunction with our commitment to superior customer service, represents a great platform for Australians to experience more with the new iPad. The popularity of tablets in Australia is rapidly rising and Optus is excited to offer our customers a number of great value plans for the new iPad.”

It is believed that only Telstra’s network can fully take advantage of the dual-channel HSPA+ speeds (with typical download speeds ranging from 1.1Mbps to 20Mbps) that the new iPad supports. However, the device is not supported on Telstra’s 4G network, which offers even faster speeds in CBD areas. In addition, Telstra has recently been suffering problems with congestion in some city areas, leading to a number of user complaints in the area.

You can find Telstra’s iPad plans online here, Vodafone’s plans online here and Optus’ plans below (they do not yet appear to have been published online):

Optus’ SMB plans:

Image credits: Apple, Optus

Telstra signs up first Next G wholesaler

Renai LeMay — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:18:27 +0000

news The nation’s largest telco Telstra today revealed it had signed up the first telco customer to resell its flagship Next G network, with the company being itself a wholesaler of telecommunications services named iTelecom Wholesale.

Telstra’s Next G network was constructed starting from 2005, under then-chief executive Sol Trujillo, replacing several other previous Telstra networks, including its rural CDMA coverage. According to regular tests, it boasts the fastest speeds of any Australian mobile network, as well as the broadest coverage.

Up until recently (and unlike rivals such as Optus), Telstra is not known to have expressed any interest in providing wholesale access to its mobile network, as both Trujillo and current CEO David Thodey have seen the network as providing Telstra with a competitive advantage over rivals in the largely unregulated mobile telecommunications market. However, the company recently confirmed it had started discussions with other carriers to allow wholesale access to the network.

In a statement released today, Telstra’s wholesale division said it had signed up telco wholesaler iTelecom Wholesale, which itself on-sells services to other telcos, to sell post-paid mobile phone services over Next G.

”We are delighted to expand our relationship with Telstra Wholesale,” said iTelecom’s chief technology officer Bruno Giger in Telstra’s statement. “We chose Telstra Wholesale’s postpaid mobile solution because we know we will receive a quality service over a robust and reliable network. This will underpin our Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) platform and provide a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) solution to retail service providers.”

Telstra Wholesale group managing director Stuart Lee said delivering enhanced solutions over existing networks was a priority for Telstra’s wholesale business, which had worked very hard to deliver the solution to market quickly.

“Customers are impressed by our high-quality handheld and wireless broadband solution, specifically the coverage and download speed,” he said. “They are also excited about the future planned release of mobile products over thecoming months including prepaid voice and wireless broadband.”

The fact that iTelecom Wholesale is itself a wholesaler opens the door for other major telcos to purchase access to resell Telstra’s Next G network. Currently, rival telcos such as iiNet offer mobile services predominantly via access to Optus’ network, which has improved in quality and speed over the past few years, but is generally considered to not offer the same performance as Telstra’s network. In August last year, national broadband provider Dodo revealed Telstra had spoken to it about selling services over its flagship Next G mobile network, for example.

However, there is also a caveat which potential customers will need to consider.

In its statement today, Telstra reiterated that the wholesale services were limited to the 3G portions of its network, which offer typical download speeds ranging between 550kbps and 3Mbps. In the CBDs of major cities, Telstra has already rolled out 4G services, which offer much higher typical download speeds ranging from 2Mbps to 40Mbps. This means that any customers who sign up to access Telstra’s Next G network through a reseller will be limited to receiving services slower than Telstra will offer direct retail customers.

Image credit: Telstra

New Sony Android tablets hit Australia

Navina Anand, Chillibreeze — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:17:31 +0000

news Sony has launched the new Walkman Z series and the Sony Tablet P and Sony Tablet S 3G in Australia. Both the tablets and the Walkman are powered by the Android OS. The existing Sony Tablet S will also have a new pricing for its Wi-Fi model.

The Walkman Z series features an anti-reflective 4.3” multi-touch LCD screen, an S-Master MX digital amplifier and the full range of Sony’s Clear Audio Technologies and EX headphones. Patrick Etherington, Assistant Product Manager for Walkman at Sony Australia said, “It is the beginning of an exciting chapter in the history of Walkman as we introduce the first ever Walkman powered by Android. The new Z series is replete with all of Sony’s innovative audio technology and offers an unparalleled personal audio experience for audiophiles and music fans alike.”

The Walkman Z series allows users to gain access to Sony’s Music Unlimited service that has a catalogue of over 7 million songs The Basic subscription will be available at a fee of $4.99 a month while a Premium subscription will be offered at $12.99 a month. The Walkman Z also has a built-in xLOUD speaker system and can connect to compatible speakers, headphones, hi-fi systems or car stereos via Bluetooth.

It also allows users to share content wirelessly or through a connection to other DLNA enabled devices. The W. Control app button allows the user to play or skip songs with a swipe of the finger. The Z series is expected to be available from late April 2012 and will retail for $269.

The Sony Tablet P featuring two 5.5-inch TruBlack displays allows users to manage different functionalities on two different or one combined screen. Kent Tanigaki, Tablet Marketing Manager of Sony Australia said that the design and functional ease of use of tablets was as important as the software that runs them. He said, “Our Sony Tablet range will continue to boast not only the most unique designs in the category, but also the best entertainment applications for Android users. The Sony Tablet P is another example of our innovation in the category.”

The Tablet P with 3G capability runs on the Android Honeycomb 3.2 operating platform and will hit Australian markets in the middle of February, retailing at $729 SRP. It will also be available online. The Sony Tablet S 3G has all the features of the Tablet S along with 3G capability and can be used as a universal remote for home entertainment platforms. This will retail at $649 for the 16GB version.

The Sony tablets also have access to the full suite of Sony Entertainment Network services like Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited allowing users to download their favourite music, movies, games and TV shows. The tablets can also work with devices with DLNA compatibility like the Sony Bravia range, which allows users to use Wi-Fi speakers. The tablets are the only ones on the market to be PlayStation certified so you can download and play PlayStation games as well. The existing Sony Tablet S will retail at a new price of $499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB) from Feb 15, 2012.

opinion/analysis
If you read Sony’s press release about these products, you would think that their release in Australia is a significant event and that they matter. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

For starters, why would anyone buy an Android-based Walkman device when they could just get that music playing capability built into any modern mobile phone? In his biography, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it very clear that he knew the iPod, which was the Walkman-killer, could have its lunch eaten by smartphones. That’s why Apple developed the iPhone first — to beat the so-called ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’, where people who invent a new technology are usually the last to understand that it’s become superceded.

Secondly, will Sony’s tablets make a dent in the universe in Australia? Hardly. As we’ve previously written, the iPad continues to enjoy an overwhelming (almost monopolistic) market share in Australia, and consequently Apple Australia is virtually printing money. These are decent products from Sony, as our reviews of some of them make clear. But there are such better products out there, usually from Apple, that I have a feeling they will unfortunately be largely ignored.

Image credit: Sony. Opinion/analysis by Renai LeMay

New LG PRADA Android phone hits Vodafone

Chillibreeze — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:08:27 +0000

news The new smartphone ‘PRADA phone by LG 3.0’ from the PRADA-LG collaboration will launch exclusively on the Vodafone network in Australia in April this year, according to an announcement by LG Electronics this week.

The new handset was announced at a joint signing ceremony in late 2011 and was unveiled for the first time at a showcase event in London in December. The LG press release says the product marks the continuation of the successful alliance between LG Electronics and the Italian fashion label PRADA. This is the third phone to come from the partnership, which the press release claims has a “heritage of producing handsets that combine the best in style and substance”.

“The latest offering continues in the tradition of combining PRADA’s trademark design aesthetics and simplicity with LG’s leading technology, including one of the brightest displays on the market and a PRADA themed UI for a truly unique mobile experience,” commented Brad Reed, senior marketing manager for LG Electronics, in the media release. “We are delighted to be launching the handset in the Australian market in partnership with Vodafone on their new 850 MHz mobile network.”

Ross Parker, general manager at Vodafone said, “The new PRADA Phone by LG is a winning collaboration between LG and fashion-house PRADA. This ‘statement’ device is the perfect choice for the discerning eye, and we’re delighted to be confirming its availability exclusively at Vodafone.”

The PRADA phone by LG 3.0 handset, styled in PRADA’s signature sharp and clean design and sporting a Saffiano pattern in the back, features a full touchscreen and is all finished in black. At 8.5 mm, it is also quite thin. The phone utilises LG’s Floating Mass Technology and has only minimal hardkeys, which gives it a clean look. Its specifications include a 1.0 GHz Dual-Core/Dual-Channel processor and dual-band Wi-Fi.

A new user interface with unique black, grey and white menu and icons is another feature of the phone. The device runs Android’s Gingerbread OS with a scheduled upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich later in 2012. It also sports NOVA High Brightness Display at 800 nit with a 4.3-inch screen and an 8 MP camera as well as 8 GB of user memory.

A line of PRADA phone accessories such as a PRADA branded cradle and Bluetooth headset and a range of pouches are on offer to complement the handset. The media release quotes the RRP as $799, with Vodafone stating on its blog that pricing and availability for the phone will be announced in “coming weeks”. Key specifications:

Operating system: Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Memory: User 8 GB maximum
Display size: 4.3 inches
Resolution: WVGA (800 x 480)
Display brightness: 800 nit
Camera: 8 MP
Processor: 1.0 GHz Dual-Core/Dual Channel
Battery: 1540 mAh

Image credit: LG

Vodafone confirms internal restructuring

Renai LeMay — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:13:50 +0000

news National mobile telco Vodafone has confirmed a report by News Ltd newspaper The Australian that it’s planning to cut members of its executive team, in a wide-ranging restructure that could affect a number of mid-level executives at the company.

The Australian has published several articles on the restructure and has published substantial sections of an internal Vodafone memo on the issue. If you have a copy of the memo, we’d love to see it too — drop us a copy through Delimiter’s anonymous tips line here.

In a statement this afternoon issued after the newspaper’s stories, Vodafone confirmed that it would make “changes” to its organisational structure and executive team over the next few weeks. “Sales and Marketing functions will be combined into a single organisation, reporting in to one director, Noel Hamill,” the telco said. “The Communications and Corporate Affairs Team will also report into sales and marketing.”

“While the restructure will result in changes across most functions in the company the outcome will be a Vodafone that is more responsive to customers and more cost effective in a highly competitive market.” Vodafone said the restructure had already seen its chief marketing officer John Casey and director of communications and corporate affairs Tanya Bowes made redundant. “We are currently exploring other opportunities for both of them,” the company wrote.

The news comes as Vodafone has been making a fair degree of progress in rectifying technical problems with its network that had caused a large number of outages, dropouts and poor coverage across its network in the closing months of 2010 and in early 2011.

In November last year, the telco said it had sent 900 mobile sites live on its new 850MHz network. Additionally, 2,000 sites in the existing network had been upgraded with new radio equipment from Chinese vendor Huawei. By mid-2012, the company will have carried out equipment replacement for 8,000 sites and the new 850MHz network will be powering 1,500 sites. The upgrades are part of several initiatives at the company which are seeing it replace all of its wireless network infrastructure with new hardware by Chinese vendor Huawei and build new network infrastructure as well.

Nigel Dews, CEO Vodafone Hutchison Australia, said in November that the benefits of the company’s fast-tracked investments were beginning to be evident. “We are bringing customers a network that delivers better indoor coverage, faster downloads and a stronger signal than before from Vodafone,” said Dews.

However, it does not appear that customers are yet signed on to the Vodafone rejuvenation story. A Commonwealth Bank analyst report reported on by a number of media outlets over the past week has estimated that in the December quarter, Vodafone added just 1,000 new mobile customers — compared to some 342,000 for Telstra and 115,000 for Optus. In August 2011, Vodafone revealed that its total customer base had declined by 375,000 customers over the previous six months, although some 110,000 of those customers lost were due to changes in the way Vodafone reports customer numbers.

opinion/analysis
Everyone’s dumping on Vodafone right now (well, actually it’s become a national sport over the past 12 months), but in my opinion, the company’s actually not doing too badly.

Certainly in Delimiter’s statistics through our product comparison site, I’ve seen a constant level of ongoing interest in Vodafone products and services, and the flood of complaints from readers both on Delimiter itself and on Twitter appear to have dampened down massively over the past nine months. “Vodafail” is no longer a buzzword and hasn’t been for six months.

Is the company completely healthy? Of course not. Most Australians are probably still quite cynical about it, and approach it warily when they’re looking to buy mobile services. Its massive network rejuvenation isn’t yet finished and hasn’t yet substantially started to affect the public consciousness around Vodafone’s ‘troubles’. And of course its numbers haven’t started to head upwards yet — it will be a while yet before its finances start to recover from the massive hit they took.

But don’t count Vodafone out yet. This week’s changes are more or less business as usual, to my mind, and I’m very interested to see what the big V can pull out of its hat by the end of 2012. Telstra, you may remember, cut some 950 middle managers in October 2010. And it seems to be doing all right.

Image credit: Matt Wakeman, Creative Commons

iiNet offers Wi-Fi in Perth CBD

Renai LeMay — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:57:10 +0000

news National broadband company iiNet revealed late last week that it had installed a Wi-Fi service throughout the Perth central business district that would let any customer of its growing family of brands access free Internet in the area.

“Over the past few months we’ve been busy working behind the scenes to install a number of wireless hotspots around the Perth CBD to make life a little easier when you’re out and about,” the company’s operations manager of its business division, Balmik Soin, wrote on its blog last week.

“There are 15 hotspot locations across the city. Whenever you’re near one of the hotpots with a wireless compatible device in hand, simply select the ‘iiNet’ WiFi network and log in with your account details. You don’t even need to know your primary account username and password – any email address and password associated with your account will let you onto the WiFi network.”

The service is branded ‘iiNet’, but customers of most brands within the iiNet group (including Westnet and Netspace) will be able to access the service, with the company to add access for customers of its new acquisitions TransACT, Internode and AAPT soon.

Soin appeared to hint that the iiNet Wi-Fi service could be coming to other cities shortly. “This is just the start of our Wi-Fi rollout plans. Keep an eye out for further announcements on where you can access ‘iiWiFi’ (say it out loud, it has a nice ring to it!) as we’ve got a couple of new locations in the pipeline already,” he said.

Further information about iiNet’s Wi-Fi coverage is available here.

iiNet has not historically invested much in Wi-Fi networks around Australia, preferring to focus on its direct broadband offering. However, rival Internode, which iiNet recently announced it would acquire, operates a large number of Wi-Fi hotspots around Australia, which are free to access. Internode has also partnered with companies such as CityLAN, cafe chain Cibo Express, airports in Darwin and Adelaide and others, in order to broaden its service nationally to some 400 locations.

At various stages over the past few years, a number of Australian Governments and other organisations have offered or planned to offer free Wi-Fi services in CBD locations. In November 2006, for example, then-NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced that the CBDs of key cities in NSW would get free Wi-Fi broadband within the succeeding three years. The project was eventually scrapped.

Many in the telecommunications industry believe that in large part, the popularity of 3G mobile broadband, either through dedicated USB dongles for laptops or through tethered smartphones or tablets, had made the need to offer Wi-Fi services fairly redundant. However, new Wi-Fi services such as iiNet’s are still launched at regular intervals in Australia.

Image credit: iiNet

Russell’s return: Optus COO post beckons

Renai LeMay — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:42:49 +0000

news One of Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan’s bitterest telecommunications industry rivals has returned from a stint working overseas to become his chief lieutenant at SingTel Optus.

As the chief executive officer of Hutchison Telecommunications Australia from 2001 through 2007, Kevin Russell occupied a maverick position in the Australian mobile sector. Hutchison was the main company pushing the new generation of 3G mobile technologies during that period, competing strongly with rivals Telstra, Optus and Vodafone and stimulating them to follow in implementing higher speeds on their broadband networks.

If it hadn’t been for the entry of Hutchison into the Australian market in that period, with the strong push it made with its ’3′ brand, many in the industry believe, it may have taken Australia’s other mobile telcos a longer time to develop their networks to take advantage of the wave of 3G upgrades available from global networking vendors.

Today, Optus announced that Russell would return from a stint leading Hutchison in the UK to become Optus’ chief operating officer, effectively becoming second in charge at the company and reporting directly to O’Sullivan himself.

“In the newly created role of chief operating officer, Mr Russell will be responsible for the day to day operations of the mass market segments of Optus’ business, as well as the wholesale and satellite division,” the company said in a statement this afternoon. “As such, he will be responsible for the Optus consumer, Optus small and medium business, and the Optus wholesale and satellite businesses, as well as Optus’ wholly owned subsidiary, Virgin Mobile.”

Russell said in Optus’ statement that he was returning to Australia “at a very exciting time” in the industry, with the rollout of 4G speeds at the major telcos, in addition to the deployment of the National Broadband Network. “I’m looking forward to working with Paul and the Optus team to take full advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead,” he said.

O’Sullivan added: “We are proud of our track record as Australia’s leading investor in telecommunications competition and our success as a market innovator. Kevin’s experience and this appointment will strengthen our ability to take full advantage of the opportunities emerging in our market. His track record in the industry speaks for itself and I am delighted to welcome him to the Optus team.”

A number of commentators (including the writer of this article) have speculated about O’Sullivan’s future with Optus over the past year, with the executive having led the company as CEO since 2004. It is likely that Russell’s appointment will add to this speculation.

Image credit: Optus