Today Optus announced plans to expand its 3G network coverage next year to 98 percent of Australia and will bring mobile speeds up to 42Mbps by 2010, in a direct challenge to rival Telstra.
As Telstra prepares to close off its CDMA network at the end of the month amidst concerns over customer migration to Next G, industry observers have said that after the dust settles the new network could hold promise for bush users.
The government has officially given Telstra the all-clear to close its second generation CDMA mobile network, saying that the telco has made all the necessary improvements that delayed its closure earlier this year.
Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, hosted a meeting of high-level Telstra executives and industry figures this morning, with the intention of abating concerns over the migration from CDMA to Next G.
update: The Rail Corporation of New South Wales has brought in external consulting company Gibson Quai - AAS to assist in the development of its enterprise-wide telecommunications strategy through to 2015.
Telstra's 21Mbps Next-G boost and Internode's new 100Mbps FttH networks may be both companies' show ponies, but when it comes to helping most of us, their need-for-speed posturing is just a box-and-dice distraction that we've all seen before.
A while back, frustration with my inability to get online outside of the office drove me to invest in a 3G data service from Hutchinson's 3. For $30 per month, I get 2GB of data that's accessible pretty much anywhere I go (I do all my work in metropolitan areas).
It has been a busy year in telecoms, whether because of the increasingly bitter relationship between Telstra and the government; the awarding of the contentious but (finally) progressive broadband contract to OPEL; the pivotal election that led to a change of government; or the move of 3G mobile technology into the mainstream at last.
Now that Minister Stephen Conroy has played his hand regarding Telstra's separation, the hard part begins.
Australian telecoms is increasingly resembling the US during Prohibition, with Telstra as Al Capone and the ACCC as Eliot Ness.
Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo's successor will need to make conciliatory gestures towards the government and reconsider the company's strategy to remain relevant, analysts have concluded in the wake of this morning's announcement that Trujillo will depart the company on June 30.
Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo will leave Telstra in a better position than when he arrived in 2005, but his successor will have to manage plenty of difficult legacy issues.
Independent video series Two-Minute Mobile satirises Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo's time so far at the top of Australia's largest telco in this short film.
In his role as Telstra's chief executive, Sol Trujillo is the most talked about and controversial telecommunications executive in Australia. ZDNet.com.au sister site CNET News.com sat down with Trujillo during a recent trip to the US to quiz him about wireless and handsets.
In these two audio recordings, Nigel Dews, the CEO of mobile carrier 3, firstly goes through the current state of the company in detail and then deals with tough questions from reporters and analysts.
Telstra today said it had started selling a laptop mobile broadband card in the ExpressCard form factor suitable for the latest Mac and PC machines.
Telstra has unveiled an upgrade to its Next G mobile high-speed data network that it claims has delivered download speeds of up to 2.3Mbps at a range of 200km.
The Telstra F850 offers a relatively inexpensive way to jump aboard the carrier's Next G platform, as long as you don't mind travelling in the slow lane.
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