Perth, Adelaide get Optus, Vodafone 3G
The companies are offering the higher-speed mobile services on the back of the nation-wide 3G network they are building in partnership.
The network currently extends to selected areas of Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Optus builds
Meanwhile, Optus also said it would invest AU$35
million in Canberra over the next two years to develop a Canberra
technical facility.
In a statement, Optus said the facility would house a satellite earth station, data centre and telecommunications exchange.
"The facility will provide growth capacity and redundancy for Sydney and Melbourne exchanges," Optus said.
The telco said the facility in Raws Crescent, Hume in Canberra would be its second in the city and was due to start operations in 2007. It is already under construction.
It will form the primary facility controlling Optus "D2" satellitre, which is due to launch from French Guiana next year.
The satellite facilitates communications services provided by Optus.
"Optus is preparing for increased demand in Internet Protocol technologies and satellite services over the coming years," said Optus' John Simon in the statement.
The executive heads up Optus' enterprise communciations division and also this morning outlined his group's strategy at a briefing in Singapore.