Telstra to launch first 4G Windows phone
Telstra has announced that the HTC Titan will be the first Windows Phone to operate on its 4G network, which it will offer to business customers from Tuesday.
(Credit: Telstra)
Telstra's group managing director of business Will Irving said that the HTC Titan 4G is all about making it faster for customers to do business. It has a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S2 processor, and runs on Telstra's long-term evolution (LTE) "4G" network at 100 locations across the country, allowing for download speeds of between 2 megabits per second (Mbps) and 40Mbps.
The device will be the first 4G phone in Australia to run on Windows Phone 7.5, joining the Android Samsung Galaxy S II 4G and the HTC Velocity 4G as Australia's first 4G phones. However, the HTC Titan 4G will only be made available to small and medium business customers.
Irving said that the Windows Phone platform would be critical for businesses that are used to operating on the Microsoft Office platform. Customers using the built-in Office Hub software will be able to access, change and share PowerPoint presentations, Excel and Word documents on the phone, and will be able to sync the documents back to SkyDrive or SharePoint.
Irving told journalists yesterday that this is not an indication that the company thinks Windows Phone is better suited to a business customer than to a consumer, stating that he sees advantages for both. The phone comes with a 4.7-inch LCD capacitive screen, a 16-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and can record 720p HD video.
The HTC Titan can also be used as a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot.
Telstra is offering the product on a variety of 24-month plans, starting at the $70 per month Business Mobile Advantage plan with an additional $8 monthly handset repayment. The plan comes with unlimited SMS within Australia, free national calls on eligible mobiles on the same account and 1GB of monthly data.
Although this is a relatively small allowance for 4G, Irving said that customers could move to higher plans, or buy data packs if required. The HTC Titan can also be bought outright for $888.
The phone will only operate on 4G in the 1800MHz spectrum band. Outside of 4G coverage areas, it will fall back to 3G.