Vodafone released its 4G service in central Wellington

Vodafone has released its 4G service in central Wellington and Lower Hutt. The fast mobile internet service had previously been switched on by the company in parts of Christchurch, Auckland, Queenstown, Lake Brunner, Taupo and Wanaka.

Palmerston North would be the next city inline to get 4G. Vodafone’s 4G network build is being rolled out in partnership with long-standing partner Nokia Siemens Networks

Overall, there are more than 150,000 4G-capable devices connected to Vodafone’s network in the country. These devices include iPhone 5, iPad/iPad mini, Sony Xperia Z, Blackberry Z10, HTC Windows Phone X and Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Vodafone 4G service offers up to 10 times faster upload and download speeds than its slandered 3G network.  This means that a 4G-capable device that takes hours to download a movie on 3G would take just few minutes. A book will take less than a second to download.

Russell Stanners, the chief executive of Vodafone NZ, said that initially 4G services will be available to 30% population of the city but it will grow to 50% by September.

Currently, the Vodafone customers are paying an extra $10 a month for the faster mobile broadband speeds of Vodafone. However, Telecommunications Users Association has forecasted that the surcharge would soon be dropped.

Company Telecom, in April, said that it would’ve 4G available on 75% of its Auckland network by October and in 60% of Christchurch and Wellington by December. The local rival company 2degree is also set to kick-off its 4G network build in 2014 and has signed a contract with Chinese telecom equipment giants Huawei for that.

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