Telstra’s BogPond starts naked DSL services (Australia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The broadband subsidiary of Australian fixed line incumbent Telstra, the BigPond has started a four- to six-week trial of naked DSL services with a view to assessing customer demand. Two different naked DSL products have been tested by Telstra including an enhanced version, offered under the ‘Pure DSL’ banner, which allows customers to receive incoming calls and make outbound emergency calls.
Traditional naked DSL with no dial tone is also offered by Telstra and there would be no additional cost for the version allowing limited call access in order to ascertain the importance of the extra feature. Telstra will offer only one tariff as a part of the trails i.e. downlink speeds of up to 20Mbps with a 25GB data usage limit for AUD59.95 (USD50.11) per month on a 24-month contract.
According to Telstra spokesperson Craig Middleton, initially the offer will only be available to ‘a few thousand’, and responding to queries about whether Telstra would offer the service to wholesale customers in the future and that would be assessed at the end of the pilot programme.
Telstra launches ‘Next G’ HSDPA network
Australian operator Telstra switched on its ‘Next G’ HSDPA network, following a AUD 1 billion investment. The equipment was provided by Ericsson and the network was rolled-out in ten months across Australia, covering a quarter of Australia’s landmass and more than 98 percent of the population, the company said. Telstra and Ericsson will continue to extend network coverage and upgrade software throughout next year in readiness for the closure of the CDMA network in 2008. The communications minister, Senator Helen Coonan, welcomed the launch of the HSDPA network and said the government will continue to work with Telstra through a dedicated working group formed to monitor the transition from the current CDMA network to the new 3G network. Regulator ACMA is currently conducting a coverage audit of the CDMA network and will audit the coverage offered by the new Next G network next year.The new network, which uses the 850MHz frequency band, offers download speeds averaging 550 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps, and peak network speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps, increasing up to 14.4 Mbps in March 2007, CEO Sol Trujillo said in a media briefing. The network was built to support future technology and Ericsson expects it to reach peak network speeds of up to 40 Mbps by 2009.
Telstra offers several Next G services on new Next G handsets such as 12 Foxtel channels including news, sports, documentaries and children’s programs; exclusive BigPond content such as V8, AFL and NRL races and matches through recently signed licences; Warner Bros classic movies; and BBC programmes. Furthermore, customers can download music tracks and use location based services with Sensis.
Telstra has been working with handset manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola, to produce a approximately 30 devices that will be available over the next 18 months. At launch Telstra offers four mobiles: the Samsung A701 and A501, ZTE F850/51 and LGTU500. LG Electronics’ LG TU500 is a flip-handset that features one-click access to Telstra My Place, Bluetooth support, USB support, 1.3 megapixel camera, 14 MB memory with 1 GB expandable microSD slot. Furthermore, customers can purchase a PDA, the i-mate Jas Jam, and one data card, the GT Max.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
