The MoU, which expands on the current joint venture agreement between the two companies, will improve Optus’ coverage by approximately 20% by 2015 through nearly 1000 additional mobile sites.
Optus claims that the agreement will also accelerate the delivery of improved 3G and 4G services to customers by 12-18 months and provide both operators with savings by sharing the cost of new infrastructure.
“Today’s agreement ensures Optus can accelerate its aggressive push to bring customers a leading mobile network for today and tomorrow,” said Kevin Russell, CEO Consumer Australia at Optus. “We will bring quicker data speeds, better call quality, and improved performance in more places to ensure Optus customers stay closer to family and friends through the latest mobile services,” he continued.
Through the MoU Optus will enhance its 3G and 4G coverage with additional sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Geelong, Central Coast, Gold Coast and Canberra.
Optus will also become the exclusive roaming partner for VHA customers in certain regional areas from April 2013 to 2018.
Optus and VHA are the second and third ranked players in the Australian mobile market with 31.8% and 23.7% market share respectively in December 2011. It is thought that the expanded MoU will allow both companies to better compete with Telstra which had 44.5% market share during the same period.
The expanded joint venture network arrangement is subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
