Vodafone has announced it has switched on its 3G+ service in the countries major capital cities, forming a major part of the company’s planned roll out of its 4G LTE service in 2013.

 

Vodafone described the launch as the ‘most critical phase’ of its $1.7 billion network upgrade, with all base station sites now fully equipped with the 3G+ and 4G-ready network technology.

 

“Over the last two years, we’ve been working hard to upgrade the Vodafone network, and now have brand new equipment at every Vodafone base station across Australia,” explained Peter Ryan, General Manager Networks.

 

“We’re now ready to accelerate our data speeds and the speed of network upgrades with the introduction of Vodafone 3G+ this month and our planned rapid roll out of 4G (LTE) from early next year.”

 

The company has promised that customers using the latest smartphones can expect to receive data speeds anywhere from 2 – 16 Mbps, which averages around 8 times faster than previously available on the earlier 3G network.