Optus announced today that customers in Brisbane and the Gold Coast CBD will be able to enjoy Optus' 3G products and services from 1 April 2006.

From Brighton to Greenbank and Brookfield to Wellington Point, customers will benefit from Optus' unique 3G offerings including: Instant Messenger (IM) on their mobile and PC, MyZooNow, an intuitive information portal and Optus Wireless Connect, a datacard offering seamless roaming on laptops.

"We are pleased that Optus customers in Brisbane and the Gold Coast can now enjoy the benefits of 3G technology. Optus 3G offers customers a new and simple mobile experience - faster speeds and new video features that change the way consumers use their mobile phones," Warren Hardy, Acting Managing Director, Optus Consumer said.

Available to Brisbane and Gold Coast customers is an always-on Instant Messaging (IM) service allowing users to have the same user experience on their mobile as on the PC.

Optus is also unveiling a new interface called "MyZooNow" - an active, intuitive portal where information is continually updated and pushed to mobile handsets. MyZooNow gives a level of personalisation not seen before.

Also available is Optus Wireless Connect - the first Australian datacard to offer seamless roaming across GSM, 3G and WiFi networks.

Mobile services include high quality video streaming, new film clips and music which can be downloaded to the handset directly. Making 3G video calls will be simple, allowing customers to video call to any mobile network in Australia and 29 mobile networks internationally.

Optus' 3G service is available with four simple capped plans and six great subsidised handsets.

"We are very pleased with the way 3G is tracking, we have seen significant take up of the "pushed" personalised content messages to Optus MyZooNow and greater than expected downloading of MSN Instant Messenger across 2G & 3G.

"Customers are also enjoying our exciting content. The most popular content pack is Music and a significant percentage of customers are purchasing more than one content pack," Mr Hardy said.

The 3G service is also having a marked impact on Optus' business customers with Optus SMB seeing rapid growth in the take-up of Optus Wireless Connect.

Optus research shows that small and medium sized business customers are positive about the product, particularly as Optus has a range of mobile usage plans for every business budget.

To deliver 3G to the market, Optus has worked with a number of partners including ABC, Azure, Bullant, Comverse, Legion, LogicaCMG, MultiMap, Ninemsn, Nokia, Nortel and Soundbuzz to bring the best of the best in technology devices and content to our customers.

Optus previously launched its 3G footprint in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane's CBD including the Brisbane airport and will continue to roll out the 3G network to Adelaide and Perth by mid-2007.

The Optus difference, MyZooNow
Optus' 3G service features MyZooNow, a unique handset 'homepage' that displays information a customer has specifically requested. Fifteen individual content channels allow customers to personalise across work and play modes.

Users can set up different preferences for work hours and after-work hours which will switch automatically. This means customers can have information such as stock quotes, currency news or breaking news pushed to their mobile while they are working; or LiveTV, music and entertainment in their spare time.

MyZooNow is powered by two new network systems. The first is a content management system (CMS) which actively searches the web for breaking news from Optus' content providers. The system filters the alerts against users' personalised settings and only pushes relevant information to the handset. CMS also provides the new search functionality for both MyZooNow on 3G and Optus Zoo on the GSM network.

The second is a location based services (LBS) server which enables the network and certain content services to identify the location of the customer. LBS powers the FindA service (maps and directions) and can be used to automatically change the MyZooNow mode based on the location of the user.

Exclusive tie-up with Ninemsn for Mobile Instant Messaging (IM)
"In November 2005, Optus became Australia's first provider of 3G IM through a partnership with Ninemsn. IM is a popular and personalised way of communicating across all age groups and 3G makes it as efficient on the mobile as through the PC with the added benefit of being able to talk to buddies wirelessly," Mr Hardy said.

Customers can also take advantage of a 2 months free promotion of Instant Messenger, National Video Calling and Zoo Browsing will be available until 31 May 2006 to new and upgrading customers on the Optus Cap Plans and 'yes' Plans.

Optus Wireless Connect
Optus Wireless Connect operates seamlessly on 3G, GSM and WiFi so that the customer's device will select the best available Optus access method and automatically connect the user.

Optus Wireless Connect offers corporate and government customers access to their private networks and enterprise applications in a secure environment while on the run, which will improve productivity and efficiency.

Pricing - 3G mobile services
Four capped plans will be available to consumers:

• $49 cap (minimum spend $49 with an included cap value of $230) per month
• $59 cap (minimum spend $59 with an included cap value of $280) per month
• $79 cap (minimum spend $79 with an included cap value of $500) per month
• $89 cap (minimum spend $89 with an included cap value of $560) per month

If small to medium businesses connect to any of the above plans, they can take advantage of a great offer of 20c calls for 10 minutes between their fleet. Businesses can also benefit from the Business $149 cap with minimum spend of $149 with an included cap value of $1,000.

Pricing - Optus Wireless Connect services
Three new plans will be available for small to medium businesses, corporate and government users, and consumers.

• $29.95 plan (75MB data downloads) per month
• $39.95 plan (200MB data downloads) per month
• $79.95 plan (500MB data downloads) per month
• $129.95 plan (1.5GB data downloads) per month

Optus 3G handsets
Optus offers the following 3G handsets:

• Nokia N90
• Nokia N70
• Nokia 6680
• Samsung Z500
• Samsung Z140
• Sony Ericsson K600i

New handsets will be added to the range continually. Subsidised handsets are available on capped plans.

Optus Content Packs
In addition to the capped plans, a range of content packs are available to customers for $3.95 per month plus browsing charges. These include:

• Music pack
• News & Weather pack
• Lifestyle pack
• Ringtones & Wallpaper pack

Note to the Editor:
On 19 November 2004, Optus and Vodafone were the first mobile operators in Australia to finalise an agreement to build and operate a joint national 3G radio network. The initial build-out of more than 2,000 base stations covering the six major capital cities is scheduled to be complete by March 2007.

Media contact:
Sheila Dhillon, or Tracy Monkman
Optus Corporate Affairs
Tel: +61 2 9342 9021 or 9342 5302