Adelaide first to show the world 3G wireless possibilities at 2002 global information technology conference
Adelaide Convention Centre hosted the 2002 World Congress on Information Technology and the first domonstration of 3G wireless technology.
The world's first independent 3G wireless telecommunications network was demonstrated in Adelaide in 2001 by the mNet consortium formed in the city.
Professor Reg Coutts, for Adelaide University, worked with professor Mike Miller of the University of South Australia to build mNet as a broad industry and university consortium that won $9 million in Australian government funding to set up a 3G network, do advanced wireless research and support internet applications being developed. The mNet consortium tender to the federal government outlined the next stage of wireless technology associated with transport, medical industries and education. It anticipated broadband infrastructure being ramped up in Australia.
The government support for mNet included building a wireless internet network to show at the World Congress on Information Technology 2002 at Adelaide Convention Centre, North Terrace, Adelaide city, with former United States president Bill Clinton as keynote speaker.
The mNet Corporation that emerged from the consortium was charged with creating and operating an advanced network in Adelaide's North Terrace precinct, including the convention centre, before the congress that presented the southern hemisphere's first live network demonstration of 3G technology.
At the congress, mNet demonstrated a network delivering broadband content over a mobile phone using a new 3G standard known as Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems (UMTS). Yet to be launched commercially, UMTS was said to be capable of delivering voice, data, audio and video at speeds up to 384k bits per second through fixed, wireless or satellite systems.
Australia's Telstra, communications company Alcatel and the mNet Corporation, a consortium of 19 Australian and multinational organisations banded to provide all the components. Tesla was also part of the mNet consortium supported by the South Australian government and also including Adelaide University, Agile, DSpace, Playford Centre, the City of Adelaide and the University of South Australia.
