Telecom in $40m G3 update to NZ cellphone network

By PAUL BRISLEN - 10.00am

Telecom is to spend $40 million rolling out a third-generation (G3) cellphone network in New Zealand and plans to have it up and running by Christmas.

Telecom has today announced its plans to upgrade its existing 027 network to the new EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimised) platform which promises to deliver speeds of up to 2.4 Mbps with an average of around 500 kbps, roughly 10 times the speed of a normal dial-up internet connection.

Telecom will roll out network coverage in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and "key holiday destinations" by Christmas.

Lucent, which built and manages Telecom's existing 027 network, will be responsible for building and running the new network extension.

Current customers with 027 phones will be able to continue using their existing handsets on the current service without disruption, according to Telecom.

Vodafone has also committed itself to building an entirely new network in the next year using a different technology, UMTS. That network, to be built by Nokia, won't be operational until later next year and will cost around $400 million. Lucent also claims EV-DO will out-perform UMTS and should be around six times faster.

TelstraClear has also been in talks with a number of companies about building its own cellphone network although nothing has been announced yet.

Vodafone has 54.6 per cent of the market share in New Zealand with 1.61 million customers. Telecom claims 1.34 million as of May this year.