April 2, 2010 - Huawei has successfully deployed Australia' s first fourth-generation (4G) wireless network with Seven Network Limited company, vividwireless. Now in operation across Perth, the network is the first step in vividwireless' national WiMAX rollout and will deliver broadband speeds comparable to most ADSL2+ connections.

"It' s been a great experience for Huawei to work with vividwireless on such an ambitious network rollout," said Huawei Australia Chief Technology Officer Peter Rossi. "vividwireless now has an open, flexible, all-IP WiMAX network which has been built to deliver high-speed broadband and quality voice services."

Huawei supplied 150 WiMAX base stations (BTS) to vividwireless for the build, and will also supply the compact vividwireless USB modem, designed to provide high-speed broadband on-the-go. Huawei will also supply vividwireless with a ‘USB modem Booster' accessory, providing a signal boost for users with coverage issues due to building materials, tree cover or distance from base stations.

"Australian users have shown a growing appetite for mobile broadband services, and the vividwireless network will offer broadband speeds and prices comparable to fixed-line services – with the added benefit of mobility," Mr Rossi said. "The vividwireless network has been designed for data from the ground up. Huawei' s equipment uses technologies such as MIMO (multi-input-multi-output), beamforming and interference cancellation to provide more coverage and higher capacity from fewer sites. vividwireless also has strong green credentials, with Huawei technology reducing power consumption and increasing network efficiency."

vividwireless CEO Martin Mercer added: "Over 6 short months we have built Australia' s most powerful wireless broadband network and assembled all of the pieces of a leading internet business. This remarkable achievement is a testament to skill, experience, team work, and motivation. Support from Huawei, our supplier of network equipment and terminals, was vital to meeting this tight deadline."

While the vividwireless network currently operates on the mobile WiMAX 802.16e standard, Huawei' s software-defined radio (SDR) solution allows for a simple upgrade to the emerging 802.16m standard in the future. Huawei' s solution also allows vividwireless to migrate its network to LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile technology in future, if it so chooses.