Vodafone Australia have just announced that the iPhone 3G will be available for $0 on their $69 iPhone cap on a 24-month contract.

Edward Goff, General Manager of Consumer Markets at Vodafone Australia said:

“Vodafone is thrilled to be offering iPhone 3G for $0 on the $69 iPhone plan, the first time this has ever been offered in Australia,”

Will other carriers follow? Is this a sign that a new iPhone is coming? It’s time to play the waiting game.

Vodafone Australia have just announced the final stages of its much anticipated $500 million high speed 3G network upgrade for major regional centres.

The upgrade expands 3G services to Vodafone customers in areas including Albury-Wodonga, Ballarat, Ballina, Bunbury, Byron Bay, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Kiama, Lismore, Mackay, Newcastle, Toowoomba, Townsville, Wollongong, Bowral, Nowra and Wagga Wagga.

This is great news for those living in the city of Hobart who have previously been without any 3G service on Vodafone.

The upgrade comes 1 year late after Vodafone chief executive Russell Hewitt said the project was its “number one priority for 2008″ in late December of 2007.

Customers in all other existing Vodafone 2G coverage areas throughout Australia are planned to experience Vodafone 3G services by the 31st of August.

Once the upgrade is complete 3G coverage is expected to reach 94 per cent of the Australian population.

Andy Reeves, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Australia said:

“Vodafone’s national network upgrade will generate greater competition in the telecommunication market and provide greater choice for more Australian customers.

“It’s great news for Vodafone customers, and we will continue to invest in the network to provide high quality service when and where it’s needed most.

All of today’s Apple announcements can be pretty much summarised quickly by browsing over there press release titles for today.

New 3G iPhone released – $199USD for 8GB – $299USD for 16GB – Available July 11 in 22 countries (INCLUDING AUSTRALIA!) – On the Vodafone & Optus networks in Australia.

Vodafone says that the 3G iPhone will be available on both prepay and contract price plans.

OS X 10.6 will be named Snow Leopard

Game Apps have been introduced for the iPhone

iPhone firmware 2.0 will be released in July and will be free for iPhone users and $10 for iPod Touch users

.Mac gets replaced by Mobile Me – Free upgrade for .Mac users

Vodafone’s $39 per month with 5 Gigabytes of data – Review

Ok, so I’ve had the Vodafone data card for about 3 months now and have been loving the idea of having access to the Internet wherever I go, for what I believe is a reasonable price.

I am what I like to call “addicted to the internet”.

Here’s a list of Pro’s and Con’s:

Pro’s:

1. 3G Coverage is pretty much available everywhere.

Vodafone’s GSM (2G) network covers up to 94.52%* of the Australian population. Our GPRS (2.5G) network covers 92% of the places you live and work in Australia. Our 3G broadband network covers metropolitan areas in Sydney, Central Coast, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, Adelaide and Perth, plus all major international airports, and is constantly expanding.

Bellow is a map show coverage of 3G in dark purple in my area:

2. The dongle is small and aesthetically pleasing.

3. The USB dongle will work on most Operating Systems and even and EeePC without any drivers.

Con’s:
1. GPRS (2.5G) speeds are too slow to use compared to say Telstra’s semi-decent EDGE network which averages around 10KB/s where as GPRS is about 2KB/s though as I mainly travel within the dark puprle suburban areas there is not too many issues.

2. There are drop outs occasionally but I have found by using the provided USB lead, hanging the USB dongle up higher seems to get rid of this issue.

3. Vodafone’s website does not tally your overall usage (Vodafone have fixed this issue) and has many inconstancies as complained about on Whirlpool – so if you are really conscious about your usage I’d suggest signing up with someone like Optus, who offer practically the same coverage, although you have to bundle such a plan with them.

In conclusion, I think I’ve found a great service at a great price, so…Bye, bye Telstra

Speed Test: