Broadband WAP on the Way

[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] Ericsson today demonstrated its 3rd generation (3G) mobile network trial, claiming that broadband mobile Internet services could be available within as little as 12 months.

The infrastructure provider did not announce a telco partner, but said it was ready to begin commercial rollout once issues such as the auction of 3G spectrum had been resolved. Ericsson Australia’s managing director Karl Sundstrom said the company would be “quite happy to sell [a 3G network] to one of the existing or new players.”

While Sundstrom pushed the cause for an early rollout, NSW minister for IT, Kim Yeadon stressed the importance of fostering the local industry. “I encourage other companies to follow suit and create a competitive market place for Internet access through mobile phone services,” he said. “We should endeavour to create an enviroment that is digitally oriented, which encourages economic activity,” he said, urging local industry to develop applications for 3G networks. “There really is a lot of work out there to be done,” he said.

Sundstrom claimed that the network would operate at 2Mbps on commercial rolllout, enabling high take-up rates of such applications as online education and medicine.

Ericsson will offer partner telcos a combination of GSM, GPRS, EDGE, cdma2000, Bluetooth and WCDMA technologies, supporting either extension of 2G platforms, or “greenfield” start-up with 3G.