New Australian 3G Service offers boost for mobile learning

Today’s Australian reports that Optus, Australia’s second-largest telcoms player, plans to spend $AU 800 million building a new 3G mobile network. Optus says the new communications network would reach 96 per cent of the Australian population, with services commencing in 2008. This would vastly extending the coverage of Optus’s existing 2100MHz 3G network, co-owned with Vodafone, which is restricted to metropolitan areas.

The telecoms market in Australia is notoriously uncompetitive, and the benefits to consumers of a new, or at least broader access, 3G service could be considerable. This is particularly true for the inhabitants of rural communities, who are currently tied into services from the formerly government-owned Telstra. Opening up the 3G market could ultimately have real benefits for rural schools, for whom improved access to 3G services could mean an opportunity to scale up their use of mobile learning.

Predictably, Telstra, the current dominant player, did not exactly welcome the news. A Telstra spokesman poured cold water on the announcement, saying its own 3G network was faster, with wider reach and better content. "To compare this network to Telstra's is like comparing a single-engine propeller plane to a 747 jet," he quipped. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he... Australia's telecommunications watchdog, the ACCC, will doubtless be keeping a close eye on developments.