Telecom’s High-Speed Upgrade Ahead of Target

Telecom is aiming to corner the business market for its new high- speed “third generation” (3G) mobile service, hitting the streets eight months ahead of arch rival Vodafone.

Officially launched at Queens Wharf’s Events Centre in Wellington yesterday and called T3G, it is not a new network but an upgrade to Telecom’s existing 027 service to allow for much faster data transfers.

The T3G upgrade cost Telecom $40 million, and took about four months to build. It was not scheduled to be running till the end of the year, but Lucent Technologies, the American technology giant which built and will operate the network on Telecom’s behalf, was quicker than expected, according to Telecom’s head of mobile Kevin Kenrick.

High-speed mobile services are available now in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, with Telecom extending coverage to holiday spots like Taupo, Coromandel and Queenstown by Christmas. Further expansions will be influenced by customer demand, Mr Kenrick said.

Telecom is concentrating on data services initially, launching a 3G data card for laptops and a 3G personal digital assistant (PDA). The service is expected to appeal mainly to business customers.

Rival Vodafone is also building its own 3G network, which is expected to be launched to the public by next July.

Telecom said its network will be six times faster than the one being built by Vodafone.

T3G uses the existing 027 network but separates the voice and data traffic, and enhances the rate of data transmission, Mr Kenrick said.