Vodafone hangs up on a 3G network

STRUGGLING No. 3 mobile phone group Vodafone has acquiesced to financial imperatives and will not build a national third generation mobile network in Australia.

Despite spending more than $200 million on a 15-year licence for 3G spectrum, Vodafone Australia chief operating officer Graham Maher said the company would opt for a partial network build, or (more likely) run a wholesale service on a competitor's network.

He told The Australian: "We do not expect there to be four 3G networks in Australia."

Hutchison Telecommunications is already building a network worth at least $3 billion and Optus has signed a deal to spend a minimum of $900 million with Nokia to build a 3G network sometime in the future.

Telstra has kept its powder dry on the issue, but Telstra mobile's chief David Thodey has acknowledged that it will eventually build a network.