When telco incumbents with extensive fixed and mobile data networks start touting rival technologies you know something’s wrong. This is especially the case when it’s a technology that has been on trial for a long time and the incumbents have not invested in it themselves.
Auckland-based Mako Networks reckons it has a world-first with its modular 3G router that is configurable for the two main global mobile broadband standards, CDMA1x EV-DO and UMTS/WCDMA, as well as fixed-line network connections such as ADSL and Ethernet.
Vodafone’s launch of its 3G services a year ago ran into a hitch. The live link to gold medal men’s triathlon winner, Hamish Carter, worked well, but because he was at the Tepid Baths swimming pool complex in Auckland, Carter was reluctant to pan the camera phone around to demonstrate its clarity.
Vodafone wants to move beyond mobile telephony and its adoption of the Linksys WRT54G3G wi-fi/3G router is one example of this new direction the company is taking.
Skype Technologies and the Hutchison 3 Group (Hutchison 3G) are to work together on what could become the world's first commercial VoIP service for mobile phones.
Vodafone says its investment in its 3G network is paying off through increased customer numbers and steady revenue despite lower overall pricing for users.
The Commerce Commission is sticking to its guns about regulating mobile termination rates (MTRs), the per-minute charges Telecom and Vodafone charge other telcos for for landing calls on their networks, in a draft report to David Cunliffe, the minister of communications.
Vodafone 3G customers who find themselves transmitting data on the slower GPRS network could be in for a nasty shock when they receive their bill. A billing problem has seen one company charged extra for GPRS traffic regardless of how much 3G traffic it had remaining.
A Chinese standard for 3G (third generation) mobile communications will emerge as one of the top global 3G standards, according to the chief executive of Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands.
Staff and reporters alike gasped when Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo announced that he was getting rid of between 6 to 8,000 full-time positions over the next three years, and up to 12,000 over five years, as part of his turn-around effort for the Aussie telco.
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