Qualcomm Plans 2002 Start To Australian 3G Services

Mobile technology developer Qualcomm has outlined plans to get a commercial 3G wireless service operating across Australia next year.

Qualcomm spent US$78.88 million to acquire bandwidth in all eight Australian capital cities in the nation's recent 3G spectrum auction.

Optus-Nokia has also forecast a 2002 start for its 3G service, spending some $446.49 million on top of the $125.51 million it paid for spectrum. Optus will use W-CDMA technology.

Small US operator ArrayCom, which bid just $4.71 million for spectrum in the Australian auction, plans to use its own iBurst technology. Three other companies - Telstra, Vodafone and Hutchison Communications - all bought 3G spectrum but have yet to detail their 3G roll-out plans.

Qualcomm plans to deploy a cdma2000 1xEV network, claimed to provide connections at peak data rates of up to 2.4 megabits per second and to be significantly cheaper for end users than the Optus system.

The company says cdma2000 1xEV offers high-speed 3G wireless data services, including Web browsing, e-mail, file downloads, and applications such as streaming video, Internet games, position location and telematics.

Qualcomm developed CDMA mobile technology and holds many patents involved in CDMA standards.

It estimated the network cost to an operator of a user consuming 200 megabytes of data a month would be US$4 a month - compared with $14 with W-CDMA and $83 for GPRS (general radio packet service).

"With the lowest cost-per-bit-transmitted, cdma2000 1xEV enables affordable flat rate service price plans and a price to the user substantially below GPRS and W-CDMA," the company says.

"Qualcomm is a strong believer in the growth prospects of CDMA in the Australian market," said Irwin Mark Jacobs, Qualcomm CEO, in a media statement. With the already existing strong demand for mobile and Internet services, the Australian market "presents a significant opportunity for early deployment of 3G high-speed wireless, always-on Internet services," he said.

Qualcomm has also announced plans for cdma2000 3G services in Mexico, Chile and Brazil.