Timeline

Australian Mobile Timeline 1981 to 2022

1981 First Mobile Network – Public Automatic Mobile Telephone System Launched

PAMTS 007 launched by Telecom with three base stations in Melbourne in August 1981 using equipment supplied by NEC
Operated at 500 MHz in 5 mainland capitals until 1993
Maximum services on 80 base stations was 14,000
Units cost $4,990 $350 to connect and $800 access fee per year

1987 Telecom Launches First Cellular 1G AMPS Network

AMPS launched February1987 in Sydney – and in May 1987 in Melbourne
Bulky locally manufactured Mitsubishi hand held mobiles sold for $4,250
USA AMPS standard network and 850 MHz spectrum was supplied by Ericsson
Ultimately expanded to 1,360 base stations and 85% population coverage
Maximum services 2.57 million reached in March 1996
Closed 80% in December 1999 and fully by September 2000

1992 Mobile Competition Starts

Optus licensed as a carrier for fixed and mobile January 1992
Optus starts re-selling AMPS June 1992
Vodafone issued a mobile license December 1992 – elects not to re-sell AMPS

1993 GSM 2G Networks Launch

Telstra launches at the earliest allowed date April 1993, Optus in May, Vodafone in October 1993
GSM suffers lots of network and phone problems – very slow take up
Optus/Telstra churn wars on AMPS – Optus expands to 34% share in 2 years
007 PAMTS phased out

1994-1996 Competition Drives Growth

March 1994 One millionth AMPS connection
June 1995 second millionth AMPS connection & 300,000 GSM’s on 3 networks
March 1996 AMPS services peak at 2.56 million services

1997-1999 CDMA Launch AMPS Phase Out

Cable & Wireless acquires Bell South’s 24.5% of Optus July 1997 and becomes C&W Optus and listed on ASX in 1998
850MHz (AMPS) and 1800 (GSM/PCS) spectrum auction April 98 nets $350M
Telstra CDMA 850MHz launched September 1999
With much reluctance 80% of AMPS network closed December 1999

2000 New Century and New Competition

March 2000 Hutchison launches (Orange) CDMA in Sydney & Melbourne
June 2000 OneTel launches GSM 1800MHz “Next Generation” with much fanfare
AMPS fully closed September 2000
PCS GSM 1800 MHz spectrum auction nets $1.327Bn paid mainly by AAPT and OneTel

2001-2002 More Mobile Than Fixed Services

Number of mobiles 10.7 million exceeds fixed lines February 2001
3G 2100MHz spectrum auctions nets $1.169Bn March 2001 – 5 winners
OneTel collapses in a pile of debt and controversy June 2001
SingTel takes controlling interest (March 2001) and 100% ownership of Optus in October 2001
GPRS cellular packet data launched on all Australian GSM networks 2001 with new data services
Mobile number portability introduced September 2001
One billionth world (April 2002) and 12 millionth Australian (March 2002) mobile service

2003 WCDMA 3G starts up

Telstra 1xRTT (pseudo 3G) on CDMA & Loop content services March 2003
Hutchison launches 3G WCDMA 2100MHz Sydney and Melbourne April 2003

2004 Network Sharing and Alternative Wireless Broadband Launches

Telstra and Hutchison announce WCDMA network sharing deal August 2004
Optus and Vodafone announce WCDMA sharing also August 2004
Telstra launches 1xRTT EV-DO on CDMA mobile broadband November 2004
Personal Broadband Australia launch iBurst/ArrayComm 2100 MHz wireless broadband Sydney March 2004
Unwired launch Navini 3.5GHz wireless broadband Sydney August 2004

2005 Other 3G WCDMA Launches

Telstra launches DoCoMo i-mode February – closed it December 2007
Telstra launches WCDMA 2100 MHz on Hutchison shared network September 2005
Vodafone launches WCDMA on Optus shared network October 2005
Optus launches WCDMA November 2005

2006 – 2009 Telstra NextG Launches and Vodafone and Hutchison Merge

Telstra launches NextG WCDMA HSDPA 850MHz network with 98.8% population & 1.9 M sq Km coverage plus EDGE on GSM October 2006
Telstra upgrades NextG network capability to HSDPA 3.6/14.4Mbps and HSUPA 1.9Mbps with a maximum range to 200 Km in February 2007 – faster devices came later in 2007.
Vodafone start HSDPA 3.6Mbps upgrade of WCDMA network October 2006
Optus announces a new 900 and/or 2100 MHz WCDMA network to cover 96% of the population to be completed by 2010
Hutchison completes HSDPA 3.6 Mbps upgrade in March 2007 & Optus in May 2007
The Coalition Government and Opel (Optus/Elders) June 2007 announce 1361 base station wholesale WiMax network part funded ($958M) by the Australian Government – The Opel network stopped by the new Labor Government in April 2008
Telstra closes CDMA April 2008. Closure was delayed due to a Government audit being carried out to ensure NextG coverage matched or exceeded CDMA
February 2009 Telstra launched HSDPA+ with theoretical speed of 21 Mbps
February 2009 Vodafone Hutchison announce a merger with the intention to combine their networks and move to a single brand Vodafone
Telstra launches HSUPA 5.8 Mbps uplink speed in June 2009

2010 -2011 3G Network Upgrades and First 4G Launched

Mid 2010 Telstra sells HSPA+ dual channel capability doubling NextG’s theoretical downlink speed to 42Mbps. Network capability was enabled in December 2009
June 2010 Telstra announced its 7,000th mobile base station.
Nov 2010 VHA announces 1,400 additional sites. 900 in metropolitan areas mostly from the split up of the 3GIS (Telstra Hutchison shared network) and 500 outside of metro areas. At the same time they announced that they would be upgrading their 3G network to use the 850MHz spectrum originally licensed by Hutchison and used in their now closed CDMA network.
April 2011 VHA starts the upgrade to Single RAN Huawei base stations. The new equipment will support 2G (GSM and GPRS) 3G (WCDMA HSDPA and up to HSDPA+ dual channel) and later on 4G LTE. They said they plan to gradually upgrade their entire network with this equipment. The Huawei equipment replaces existing 2G and 3G equipment supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson.
September 2011 Telstra publicly launches 1800 MHz LTE in 5 KM radius of all capital cities and airports and 3 KM radius in large regional centres. The spectrum used is re-farmed GSM spectrum which Telstra already licenses. The network offers theoretical maximum speeds of 100 Mbps to the mobile and 50 Mbps up – Telstra says customers should expect to see between 2 and 40 Mbps in normal use double the practical speed of its dual channel HSDPA+ 3G network.

2012 Optus Buys Vivid and Network Shares with VHA

February 2012 Optus announces it has bought Vivid from Channel 7 for $230M and plans to use Vivid’s 98 MHz of 2.3 GHz spectrum to offer TDD LTE services alongside its expanding FDD LTE and HSPA+ network.
May 2012 Optus and VHA announce agreement to share some existing sites and the cost of 500 new shared sites giving Optus access to 1,000 and VHA 900 additional Base station sites
Optus launches 4G LTE July 2012
June 2012 Vodafone announces loss of 375,000 services as a result of network performance issues in late 2011 and earlier in 2012
Shared Hutchison/Telstra 3G 3GIS network closes August 2012 and base station sites are split between Telstra and VHA. 3 Customers move to Vodafone’s network

2013 4G Spectrum Auction VHA Launches 4G & Closes 3 Brand

May 2013 ACMA announce 4G spectrum auction result yeilds $2Bn with Telstra paying $1.3Bn for 2X20Mz 700MHz and 2X40MHz 2.5GHz and Optus $650M for 2X10MHz 700MHz and 2X20MHz of 2.5GH. AAPT bought 2X10MHz 2.5GHz for $M13.5
Optus connects 0.8 million 4G devices by March 2013
Telstra in May 2013 has 2.2 million LTE devices on its 1,500 base station 4G network
Telstra expanded LTE to 2,000 base station for 66% population coverage by June 2013 and 3,500 base stations for 85% coverage by December 2013
Vodafone launched 4G LTE 1800MHz network in June 2013 with selected coverage in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth , Adelaide, Newcastle and Wollongong
Vodafone Hutchison Australia 3 roaming with Telstra ends June 2013 and VHA finally closes 3 brand 30 August 2013

2014 4G LTE Expands and Adds New Spectrum and Speed

Services on 4G increase rapidly. By the end of 2014 40% of the 31.1 million subscriptions are on LTE (57% on 3G WCDMA and only 3% remain on 2G GSM).
LTE expansion continues – Telstra announces that it will reach 80% population coverage by January 2015.
July Telstra announces it will close 2G on 1st December 2016. It claims GSM is less than 1% of network traffic.
Telstra and Optus add new spectrum (2600 and 700 MHz) in early access deployments and Vodafone re-farms some 850MHz from 3G to 4G.

2015 LTE Low Band Spectrum and Footprint Rollout 5G Planning Start

January Optus announces its LTE-A CA network 4GPlus capability is available across its network which will cover 90% population by April 2015
April Telstra announces its network reach is 99.3% of the population (covering 2.3M sq Km) with LTE reaching 90%
May Macquarie Bank buys the almost 2,000 base stations held by Crown Castle and mostly built by Optus and Vodafone for $2Bn.
June it was announced that Telstra will build 429 and Vodafone 70 new base stations over 3 years in the $385M ($235M from the carriers) Black Spot Mobile Program.
Also in June ITU announced its framework for development of 5G under the banner of IMT2020. The plan is to have 5G start deployment in 2020.
Telstra and Optus rollout 700 and some 2600MHz spectum on LTE after small scale deployments later in 2014. Optus is far more aggressive.
August Optus announces closure of 2G on 1st April 2017.
All carriers trial VoLTE and claim their aim to launch in 2015.

2016 2G Close Starts, VoLTE and Faster LTE, 5G Trials Start

Telstra closes 2G network December.
2Bn 4G LTE service worldwide.
Telstra Category 9 LTE 450Mbps using 3X20Mz carrier aggregation.
Telstra and Optus provide VoLTE for limited number of capable devices.
1800 MHz spectrum auctions.
Telstra trials of 5G using Ericsson test bed.
Federal Government funded Black Spot program largely won by Telstra 148 sites.

2017 EPC Implementation Starts mmWave and Cat M1 IoT Trials

Optus 2G shut August.
Telstra to close 2,500 of its 5,300 telephone exchanges as NBN now provides most fixed network connections.
ACCC decides not to mandate mobile roaming.
Telstra implements Evolved Packet Core Network Stage 1.
Telstra trials 5G Release 15 and mmWave on test bed.
Cat M1 IoT trials.
Telstra announces $3Bn network overhaul after several severe outages.
Mobile apps reach 2.1M on iOS and 3.6M on Android at December.

2018 Cat M1 Launches 5G Spectrum Auctioned

5G NR Stand Alone standard finalised by 3GPP.
Ericsson reduces staff by 10K after loss of $853 USD – they reduced 17K staff in 2017.
NBN wireless network reaches 240K service capacity on 1,972 sites.
Telstra reaches 9,000 mobile sites having spent $3.48Bn on spectrum over past 15 years.
Telstra launches Cat M1 IoT with 3M sq Km of coverage.
50% of voice traffic now on VoLTE and LTE coverage reaches 99% of the population.
LTE reaches 2Gbps with 4X4 MIMO 256 QAM modulation and 5X20MHz carrier aggregation
3.6GHz 5G $853M spectrum auction concluded.
August Huawei blocked from 5G network supply in Australia.

2019 5G Launches, Huawei Block from 5G Network Supply

May Telstra launch 5G NR NSA in 10 cities with 36% population coverage.
Telstra announces it has spent $8Bn on mobile over the past 5 years.
Telstra announces that 3G will turn off June 2024.
November Optus launches 5G.

2020 TPG & VHA Merge, 5G SA RAN and Core Launched

May Telstra launches Stand Alone 5G RAN and cloud native 5G SA core network.
July TPG merges with Vodafone Hutchison Australia
Optus and Telstra test mmWave 5G on early access test 26GHz spectrum
December 750,000 5G devices on Telstra network with 2,250 base station sites and 50% population coverage.
June Telstra NB IoT and Cat M1 IoT networks now across full 4G LTE footprint with 4M Sq. Km of coverage.

2021 Spectrum Auctions, Tower Sales and Digicel Pacific Purchase

850 and 900 MHz spectrum auction completed – Telstra & Optus pay $2.1Bn
April 26GHz mmWave spectrum auction completed yielding $647M.
NBN spends $800M to improve wireless broadband to 19,000 cells for 342,000 services (18 SIO/cell).
5M 5G mobiles active on Australian networks aided by first 5G iPhone 12 strong sales.
June Telstra & Ericsson demonstrate 5G SA data connection over 113Km using 850 MHz spectrum.
June Telstra sells 49% of 8,200 mobile sites for $2.8Bn.
Optus sells 70% of its owned Australian Tower Network (2,300 sites) to Australian Super for $1.9Bn.
Telstra & Australian Government agree buy Digicel Pacific $2.14Bn.
June Telstra reports 10,700 base stations on its networks with 2.5M Sq. Km & 99.5% population coverage – 5G 2.8 M devices and 77% pop coverage.
December TPG Vodafone report 6,800 mobile sites 1,000 of which have 5G.

2022

April Singtel owned Australian Tower Network (owner of 2,300 mainly Optus towers) buys Macquarie owned Axicom owner of (2,000 mainly Optus & Vodafone towers) for $3.58Bn.
February Telstra and TPG announced a ten-year regional Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) infrastructure sharing deal – subject to ACCC approval.
March NBN announces plan to increase fixed wireless footprint to 750,000 and speeds up to 250Mbps available to 85%.
July Telstra & Australian Government complete Digicel Pacific purchase after nine months of various country regulatory approval.
August Optus launches 5G Stand Alone after almost a year of testing.
Vodafone announces in September that it will close WCMDA (3G) in December 2023.