Vodafone do not have the best reputation in the Australian mobile industry, but they are working really hard at improving the quality of their service. Although they’re a bit behind the competition – Telstra began the rollout of their 4G network over 12 months ago, and Optus switched theirs on midway through last year – Vodafone’s new 4G network looks pretty promising. Vodafone have announced today that they will commence the rollout of their LTE network in June in the major cities around Australia. The rollout will start with the major cities – Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide, but Vodafone also plan to offer the service in Woolongong, Newcastle and the Gold Coast as well. Typical speeds are said to be between 2 and 40Mbps, which is 15 times faster than the average speed of Vodafone’s 3G network, but speed tests have been able to download at over 60Mbps in Vodafone’s head office.
No plan pricing has been announced as yet, but it’s unlikely that Vodafone will impose a surcharge for using their LTE network, as neither Telstra nor Optus currently do so, and customers interested in a new LTE-compatible HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S 4 are likely to go elsewhere if they’re just going to have to cough up more money in a couple of months’ time.
