Under the provisions of the deal, 3 Austria customers will have access to T-Mobile’s 2G network, and T-Mobile’s customers will be able to connect to 3’s 3G network. There are still numerous technical support requirements to be completed, before the services are fully available in mid 2012.
T-Mobile is also planning to upgrade the technology at more than 5500 of its Austrian 2G stations to provide superior 2G services.
The partnership is expected to provide an all round better coverage for 2G and 3G across Austria, but it is not expected the companies will work together to launch LTE networks. 3 Austria and T-Mobile Austria are continuing efforts to upgrade existing 2G and 3G infrastructure to LTE standard independently.
BuddeComm consultancy firm estimates a quarter of all Austrians will have access to LTE technology by 2013.
3 Austria’s existing 2G roaming agreement with incumbent A1 remains unaffected.
