Optus & Vodafone have finalised their 3G deal
Looks like Optus and Vodafone have finalised their deal to share 3G radio access and network infrastructure.
I’m looking forward to this… It means the 4 Australian carriers will all be offering 3G services in conjunction with their GSM service.
That’s 2 3G networks shared among 4.
Hrm…
Let’s say there is something wrong with the network, will they blame the fault on something their own side, or on the other side? 
I’m just joking, of course, i’m sure they have something sorted. I do remember hearing that Optus and Vodafone will have a third organisation involved which will have people from both sides.
A couple of weeks ago, when I went to Chadstone there was a Telstra i-mode stand on the second floor (near the food court). Talked to one of the ladies there, and was given an i-mode brochure.
Looks like there is a lot of interesting services, but i’d be inclined to decline joining up. Why? Well, quite simply the cost factor.
With a $60 per month plan, they offer $10 worth of included i-mode data service. (This is what the i-mode lady told me!)
From memory it’s roughly 2 cents per kb.
Is that enough to entice you to try out this new i-mode service?
Note: I did find it relatively okay to use. I tried using the NEC i-mode phone offered by Telstra.
The first site I surfed to using i-mode? FoxSports! Went to browse the headlines and try to read an article or two.
What did I think of the i-mode site for FoxSports? Well, it reminded me so much of viewing pages using the phone emulators when I did the Handheld Applications and Operating Systems subject (CSE3211 — if anyone cares & taught by Peter Stanski) 2 years ago. (Except those were viewed in Black and White/monochrome, where as this actually had some colour!)
It’s really quite a different experience viewing websites in that format.
Just remember that i-mode actually uses cHTML as opposed to our regular X/HTML that we all use for normal websites. WAP sites use WML.
So by this time next year, we’re very likely (barring a mishap) going to have 4 companies competing for your service (er, money!) on 3G.
Are there any MS SmartPhone based phones operating on 3G networks?
Side Note: I use the phone more to receive calls and send SMS messages than to make calls. Hence, the prepaid card!
But I know that situations change, and I may need to change over to a plan sometime in the future.
Maybe when that Motorola MPX comes out 