Huawei Technologies announced it has successfully completed the first 3G UMTS900 network trial in Australia in partnership with Optus. The trial was carried out in New South Wales by a team of Huawei and Optus personnel, using Huawei's UMTS900 transmitters. UMTS900 is seen as an ideal frequency for sparsely populated areas, as a single UMTS900 base station provides a broader coverage than the 2100 frequency spectrum currently being operated by the majority of the world's 3G carriers, therefore reducing the cost of rollout.

"Within three months of agreeing to the trial, Huawei and Optus built and tested a UMTS900 network. The trial involved a myriad of Optus and Huawei staff and is an achievement that we are very proud of. In particular, Huawei were able to deliver in the timeframe we required," said Henry Calvert, Director, Mobile Products at Optus.

Optus is currently reviewing the UMTS900 technology as part of its future mobile strategy and believes that deploying the 900Mhz frequency band in parallel with the existing mature GSM900 network could result in swifter delivery to market in existing footprint areas and a reduction in costs when expanding to new areas. Optus plans further technical trials of the UMTS900 network in the town of Dubbo over the coming months and is expected to make a decision on the technology later in 2007.

Huawei is a pioneer in the development of UMTS technology and have refined their solutions to re-use the existing GSM 900 frequencies and infrastructures, including base stations and antenna lines, helping carriers reduce capital expenditures and enabling speedier deployment of a network. To date, Huawei has secured 50 commercial UMTS contracts and established strategic partnerships with 31 of the world's top 50 operators including Vodafone, Telefónica, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Etisalat, China Mobile and China Unicom.