Research in Motion has announced the BlackBerry Storm, known as Codename Thunder, and will be made available in the US via Verizon and in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and India via Vodafone. The new 3G phone is a competitor to the iPhone, and will be the first BlackBerry to come with a touchscreen.
Vodafone has launched the first unlimited music download service in Australia, allowing customers to an infinite number of songs for $2.75 a week accessing content from all four major record labels – Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner Music – along with a range of independent artists.
Vodafone Australia has said that it has sold 140 of its mobile towers to infrastructure mangement firm Crown Castle Australia, effectively outsourcing them to another Australian firm.
The chief technology officer Andy Reeves has said that they have sold the assests because they were “commercially prudent” for the carrier to outsource them to a different company to manage.
IDC telecommunications analyst Mark Novosel is testing the four networks that will be used by the iPhone as part of a report to be released later this year; and it showed that Optus, the best plan for budget users, was the slowest.
Vodafone has released its iPhone pricing plan for both New Zealand and Australia, but has failed to better the offering from rival Australian carriers, Telstra and Optus.
According to the pricing plan, which has been removed, the carrier will offer eight plans, four for business and four for consumers. All plans, except the $169 plans will see you paying for the 8GB model, but you will need to pay for the 16GB model for any plan regardless.
Vodafone has struck a deal with MySpace to launch a brand new platform for your mobile, called Vodafone Music Reporter – allowing fans of its music events a chance to present a MTV show that will be shown online and on mobile.
Vodafone Australia has announced that it would be selling the iPhone later this year in Australia, as part of a global deal with Apple.
The global deal would see Vodafone selling the product in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.