TAG | Vodafone “extends” 3G mobile broadband schedule |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Friday, 10 October 2008 | |
  
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Although Vodafone and Optus had the end of 2008 as a milestone for part of their 3.5G expansion, I was under the impression that everyone’s networks would need more upgrades in 2009 and beyond. This would be to install more 900MHz towers in rural and regional areas to better compete with Telstra, or to look at moving towards HSPA’s successor beyond HSPA+/eHSPA (itself an upgrade) to LTE, known as Long Term Evolution. But whatever future expansion plans are, clearly networks are built in stages, and Ericsson is the company that Vodafone has engaged to build out its additional 2100MHz and 900MHz towers across Australia, and the completion of this particular contract is being pushed out. Vodafone was quick to confirm that “a vast majority of the engineering and hardware installation work has already been completed”, and that as the “turnkey vendor on the project, Ericsson is currently formulating a new, detailed schedule for all remaining work.” So, why has there needed to be a time extension? Vodafone says “the extended schedule is primarily in response to the complexity of final commissioning required to activate Vodafone’s new capabilities.” Andy Reeves, the Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Australia, said: “We are currently reviewing with Ericsson the best way to bring the benefits of our 3G upgrade to customers. It will take Ericsson longer than originally anticipated to complete the project, but our first priority is to maintain the quality and continuity of existing coverage.” In case there is any concern Vodafone or Ericsson are unhappy with each other, Vodafone has moved to “reaffirm its intention to deploy world class Ericsson equipment for the upgrade and will soon make further announcements about the timeframe for completion.” So, what will Vodafone’s network coverage be once the upgrade is complete? Vodafone says its 3G coverage will reach “95% percent of the areas Australians live and work”, which is smaller than Telstra’s 99% claim with Next G, something Telstra says amounts to around 1 million square kilometres compared with Telstra’s 2 million sq km’s. At present, Vodafone says it provides 3G coverage to “over 63% of the areas Australians live and work, and GSM (2G) services to 94.5% of the areas Australians live and work”, and that Vodafone customers “currently in non-3G areas will continue to receive standard GSM voice, TXT and GPRS mobile email services while the upgrade is being completed.” |
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