Vodafone rubbishes report of sluggish 3G

Vodafone has dismissed as "rubbish" a report that it warned analysts on Thursday that its 3G mobile phone services won't be up to speed when they are launched.

A report today in the Financial Times claims the operator admitted that its networks supporting initial 3G services will be configured to guarantee data rates of just 64K, rather than the 384K download speed expected.

Such speeds would not be sufficient to allow smooth downloading of audio and video clips, such as replays of football match highlights, touted as key services for the new phones.

Indeed, at 64K, the services could not even officially be called 3G, as the International Telecoms Union (ITU), which defines standards, says 3G services should offer at least 144K in all environments and up to 2Mb in certain situations.

But a spokesman for Vodafone told vnunet.com that its network will meet the required standard. He said: "When we launch in the second half of next year, we will deliver 3G exactly according to standard. The network will have the capability to serve customers at a range of 64K to 384K and will exceed 144K on average."

Being unable to smoothly supply audio and video images at launch would represent a major disappointment for operators, who have spent over £100bn in Europe on 3G licences.

They will have to lay out tens of billions more to build the new networks required to run them.

Vodafone alone has spent £13bn for licences in 10 countries in Europe.