By Claire Reilly

Following its purchase of Vividwireless Group Limited from Seven Group Holdings, Optus has announced that it will be building a new 4G network in Australia to bring super-fast internet speeds to businesses and consumers.

In a statement today, Optus confirmed that the purchase of Vividwireless involved the acquisition of “up to 98Mhz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz band, a band already used by some of the world’s leading operators to provide 4G services”.

The acquisition also provides an opportunity for Optus to vaunt over its competitors, with the company promising typical wireless broadband speeds of 25Mbps to 87Mbps for downloads, which are “twice as fast as existing competitive 4G services.”

The only telco in Australia that currently provides 4G services is Telstra, which launched a dedicated 4G wireless dongle last year, and partnered with HTC for the launch of the HTC Velocity 4G smartphone in January this year.

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According to Optus CEO Paul O’Sullivan, the purchase of Vividwireless Group Limited (which operates the vividwireless and unwired brands) will open up new avenues for growth to Optus.

“The acquisition of Vividwireless will give Optus a significant increase in network capacity to address the next wave of data growth that is just around the corner,” said O’Sullivan. “By integrating it with our current 4G rollout (in the 1800MHz band), we will be able to provide increased mobile speeds to our customers in metropolitan Australia.”

“Optus was born out of a desire to provide choice and competition to Australians for telecommunications services. Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to being a leader in 4G and in providing Australians with a range of high speed mobile services.

“This is an important step in our vision to lead the industry in customer experience by delivering relevant content and applications anywhere, on any device.”

In September 2011, Optus announced that it deliver its first 4G LTE services in April this year, with Newcastle, Port Stephens, the Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie areas the first to be connected, followed by a two-phase capital city connection process that is set to begin in mid 2012.