Welcome to your personal issue of This Week, Australia's only easy to read FREE weekly summary of the the top news stories on wireless communications in Australia and New Zealand. Don't forget if you can't wait for the latest information you can always visit our web site where This Week is updated daily. You can also visit our archive where you can see stories posted since mid-2003. Our search engine is an easy way to locate a specific topic. For those that want to know more, click through hyperlinks are embedded in each story enabling you to view the source information. Note some of these links may require you to subscribe to the publication that provides the source material.

Australia

Questions remain despite Telstra profit

10 August, 2007

Telstra suffers second biggest one-day fall of 4 cents since Trujillo was appointed CEO arguably due to a number of reasons raised at the shareholders meeting this week.

Labor claims OPEL decision is political

9 August, 2007

Commenting on the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Protecting Services for Rural and Regional Australia into the Future) Bill 2007 which has opened up a prospective partnership between Optus and Elders to build a rural WiMAX broadband network, Labor frontbencher Simon Crean believes the government's decision to award OPEL the project has no other purpose than to block Labor's own strategy for connecting to 98 percent of the country to fibre-to-the-node technology.

Wireless revenue lifts Telstra profit

9 August, 2007

With net profit for 2006-07 up 2.9 per cent to $3.275 billion, special mention was made of the company's growing mobile division and figures that indicate there are more than 2 million 3G customers on its network.

WiMAX hearing set for 13/9

8 August, 2007

The Supreme Court will undertake a 2-3 day hearing of the legal battle between Telstra and Communications Minister Helen Coonan over the OPEL tender award on September 13.

Sheer weight of numbers

8 August, 2007

Ahead of its full year results briefing Telstra has released subscriber numbers that indicate its NextG network now has more than 1 million subscribers which brings the telco's overall 3G user base to more than 2 million.

The Empire strikes back

8 August, 2007

Telstra has responded to government threats to delay the closure of its CDMA network by reporting that NextG subscribers now exceed its 2G CDMA counterparts with more than 1 million happy customers.

Government puts spanner in Telstra's NextG (net)work

7 August, 2007

It looks probable that the closure of Teltra's CDMA mobile phone network will be extended for regional areas with fresh conditions imposed on the company's licence to operate.

No Vaile about National Party's threat to Telstra

6 August, 2007

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile has stepped up the attack on Telstra over potential wireless gaps in coverage for rural Australians saying the government had the power to stop Telstra closing down its CDMA network if they were unhappy with the Next G service.

Coonan targets Telstra weakness in return of serve

6 August, 2007

Telecommunications minister Helen Coonan has hit back at Telstra following its decision to file legal action against the government for the way it awarded AU$1 billion of WiMax funding to the OPEL consortium by raising the issue of the quality of coverage of the NextG network the telco plans to replace its CDMA service with.

Vodafone glitch frustrates prepaid subscribers

6 August, 2007

A problem with Vodafone's credit card processing system has prevented prepaid customers from renewing phone credit.

New Zealand

Tourism NZ targets Australian mobiles

10 August, 2007

Tourism New Zealand and regional tourism organisations have teamed up for a promotion to Australians via mobile phone, Internet, and texting providing that subscribers sign up to receive the advertising.

TelstraClear counts cost of the failure of network trial in Tauranga

9 August, 2007

The costs of shutting down its failed Unplugged wireless network trial in Tauranga has resulted in a $28 million loss before interest and tax against a $10m profit a year earlier] for TelstraClear.

Telecom looks to strengthen 3G partnership in Australia

7 August, 2007

With the opportunity to improve its shareholding in ASX-listed Hutchison Telecom, Telecom New Zealand stands to benefit from an operator that has acquired a large share of the lucrative 3G market in Australia.

Deal details remain undisclosed

6 August, 2007

The government is refusing to disclose the legal advice it relied on to reach agreement with Telecom and Vodafone over the reduction in fixed-to-mobile termination rates the wireless operators will now charge customers.

Yellow Pages moves closer to wireless service

6 August, 2007

In step with Intenet usage that is expected double to 1.2 million users next year, Yellow Pages is working on a new wireless service due for release later in the year.

What's new on our site?

TeleResources Managing Director to present at WiMax Summit Australia 2007

TeleResources Managing Director, Maurie Dobbin, will be giving his insights on:

WiMAX here and now, from myth to market reality

* Market trends and the shift towards wireless solutions
* Evaluating the main forces of growth and change
* Assessing the long-term impact of WiMAX
* When will regular commercial deployment of WiMAX start to happen?

CLICK HERE for registration details and to receive your 15% off be sure to quote TELERE15

Comarco's new automated wireless network test system results integrated onto Google Earth video

To really know how a network is performing… Get inside the phone!

In today’s competitive wireless environment, it’s critical to understand what customers are experiencing on the network. With the Comarco QuOTA system, service quality can be monitored from the customers’ perspective – by using the phone itself.

Running as a software application directly on smart phones, the QuOTA client allows standard commercial handsets to act as QoS measurement probes, measuring the performance of voice, data, and video services

QuOTA gives wireless service providers the ability to monitor the quality experienced by their customers, where they live, work, and travel…the most critical areas of the network.

CLICK HERE to view the video

TeleResources presents 'Look@Me™' a user generated video content platform for personal broadcasting

Look@Me™ is a market-oriented application based on Vidiator’s suite of Xenon products including the Xenon Live Encoder and Xenon Streamer. The technology has proven its stability and interoperability by major operators around the world to deliver a consistent and quality multimedia service to subscribers.

Look@Me™ as an application integrated with Vidiator’s core technologies provides an easy and fun service that takes advantage of the enormous trend of sharing and publishing user generated content. Look@Me™ is the perfect market-oriented service platform that subscribers want and the marketpace demands.

CLICK HERE for more info

Upcoming Events

In-Building Solutions Asia Pacific 2007

20-23 August 2007
Singapore

IIR's In-Building Solutions Asia Pacific Summit is the only event of its kind to address the specific technical challenges of Indoor Radio Network Planners. Don’t miss this opportunity to develop and consolidate your knowledge and contacts in this field.

The nature of the event will allow you to discuss strategy for the development of systems considering GSM, WCDMA, HSPA, CDMA, 1xEV-DO, WiFi, WiMAX and multiband solutions, while hearing real-life implementation case studies. Singapore, 20-23 August 2007!

To register email: Registration

Mobile Payments Asia 2007

2-4 September 2007
Bangkok, Thailand

Informa’s Mobile Payments Asia 2007 is back and promises to be bigger and even more focused this year with a comprehensive 3 day programme that will look at all the key issues pertaining to market adoption and technology advancement. Mobile Payments Asia 2007 is a uniquely valuable opportunity for participants to put across their vision of how to meet challenges and maximise opportunities faced by players and stakeholders eyeing the rich potential of the Asian mobile payments market! Join professionals from the region who will be gathering to do business and learn from leading experts and practitioners.

For more information and to register please visit: www.informatm.com

Next Generation Low Cost Handsets (LCH) Asia 2007

4-6 September 2007
New Delhi, India

Low Cost Handsets Asia will once again bring together leading operators, handset and contract manufacturers, technology and content providers and application developers to address commercial and technical strategies to Harness Ultra Low Cost, Entry Level, and Low Cost 3G Solutions to Penetrate Emerging Markets.

It will also assess challenges faced by and provide solutions to operators in their need to maintain profitability and ARPU maximization in the highly competitive emerging markets.

For more information and to register please visit: www.informatm.com

IIR’s Billing & Revenue Management Asia Pacific

22-26 October 2007
Hong Kong

IIR's forthcoming Billing & Revenue Management (RM) event will provide you with the unique opportunity to hear exclusive Pan-Asian and European telecom operator case studies. Leading operator speakers will be sharing their valuable and hard won experiences on optimising Billing and RM processes for meeting the requirements of next generation services and capturing maximum revenues. Don't miss this valuable opportunity to gain a considerable advantage over your competitors by optimising your flexible, scalable and convergent billing to drive revenues.

For more information and to register please visit: www.iir-events.com

Mobile Entertainment Markets (MEM) Asia

6-7 December 2007
Singapore

Co-Located with IPTV World Forum Asia

The mobile and entertainment industries are increasingly merging, so why not have an event which brings together the leaders of both industries. Creating ONE Market-Place for both the mobile and media spheres.

The longest standing and most established event in the global mobile content industry. With market-leading speakers representing: mobile music, games, social networking and advertising, it will be an event not to be missed.
3 days, 6 events, unrivalled networking and a multitude of opportunities to do business!

For more information and to register please visit: www.memasia.com