Prepaid Vodafone customers move into 4G
Having already launched its 4G network for post-paid customers in June, Vodafone announced today that its existing prepaid customers will be able to immediately access the 4G network, with new prepaid customers being able to join the network from mid-November.
"We're rewarding our existing prepaid customers by transitioning them to our superfast wide-band 4G network first. Some have been with Vodafone for many years and we want to ensure their move is a smooth one," said Vodafone Australia chief marketing officer, Kim Clarke.
More than 300 towers have been equipped with 4G across Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Newcastle, Gold Coast, and Wollongong. The company is aiming to triple the number of towers it has to well over 1,000 by the end of this year.
While Vodafone's 4G network was the last to be turned on for consumers, the telco does have an advantage with the 2x20MHz of contiguous spectrum that it owns in the 1800MHz band.
"Our current advantage is our spectrum. Put simply, the wider the radio channel, the fatter the pipe, which translates into faster data speeds for customers," Vodafone's chief network officer Benoit Hanssen said in July.
"Vodafone is currently the only carrier that has this spectrum band in all five major mainland state capital cities."
In a recent update, Telstra revealed that it had sold 3.2 million 4G devices since its network was launched two years ago.
Last month, Optus announced the expanison of its TD-LTE 4G network into Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Adelaide.