Vodafone subscribers have a reason to rejoice. After Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, the country’s third largest telecom operator in terms of number of subscribers, Vodafone will soon be rolling out its 3G services. The company has recently launched its advertising campaign regarding 3G during the ongoing cricket world cup. It is to be noted that Vodafone had purchased airwaves in nine service areas for over Rs 11 crores in the 3G auctions and tested 3G services in December. But at that time Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had raised objections regarding security surveillance of services such as video calling. Meanwhile, Vodafone has come up with several service offerings which includes a 3G device which can be used a Wi-Fi to connect to several laptops in office.  The company however, has not revealed the packages and prices of its 3G services. Keeping in mind that other operators too will be rolling out 3G services, it is expected that the price of the services will be kept competitive. With the help of 3G services, connecting and surfing internet via mobile phones will become much faster.

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Mobile telco VHA tonight definite it would be bringing Google’s Nexus S phone to Australia, even though the date of the local launch and any pricing facts stay under wraps for now. “Vodafone can confirm the Nexus S will be available in Australia. Pricing and launch details will be announced soon,” the business whispered on its Vodafone blog late tonight. It noted that consumers would be able to pre-register for interest in buying the Nexus S. The disclosure comes as Vodafone internationally revealed the Nexus S would be launched in a total of 24 latest countries worldwide.

Assumption has run extensive about whether the hyped phone would land in Australia since it was unveiled in early December last year. At the time, maker Samsung would only say that it was thrilled at the prospect of bringing the gadget to Australia, and was reviewing its options on how to do so. A plethora of latest high-end campaign — including handsets that are destined to make their way to Australia — are probable to be divulged next week at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. Telstra chief executive David Thodey is planning to attend the event, where the telco’s partnership with HTC to launch its flagship Desire phone was unveiled in 2010.

The Nexus S has analogous provisions to other high-end Android phones currently on the market, for instance the HTC Desire HD, also sold by VHA in Australia. It comes with a 4″ WVGA, super AMOLED screen running at a resolution of 480×800 and using capacitive touch technology. It utilises a 1GHz Cortex A8 (Hummingbird) CPU, and comes with 16GB of onboard memory, and a 5 megapixel back-facing camera, as well as a front-facing VGA camera for video calls.

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Google may not be selling it directly for much longer, but you can and will still be able to buy a Nexus One from Vodafone, in European mobile markets.

However, the Nexus Ones that were bought from Vodafone are still stuck on Android 2.1 right now, even if Google officially announced Android 2.2 Froyo for the Nexus One a good while ago.

Vodafone has announced that it will right this wrong during next week. The roll out will be over the air, but will not go to all mobile phones at the same time, so as always with these things, be patient.

If you’re wondering why it took so long, the reason is that Vodafone apparently couldn’t help tweaking things here and there in Google’s new OS.

As such, the version of Android 2.2 that will be available for Vodafone’s Nexus Ones doesn’t have the Amazon MP3 store and Google Goggles in the ROM. They’ll both still be available for download in the Android Market.

Vodafone officials also warn customers that by default, the WiFi tethering hotspot is set to open, so you’ll have to manually turn WPA on to secure it.

While this may be a late update, keep in mind that no other cell phone except the Nexus One has Android 2.2 available for it even now.

HTC, Motorola, Samsung and all the other mobile phone manufacturers selling Android smartphones sure know how to take their time with these things.

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Vodafone UK clients now have the option of getting a cool new mobile phone, the Vodafone 247 model, pictured hear. This phone is certainly no Vodafone 845, but it comes with the feat of using solar power, thanks to a solar panel placed at its back. The 247 is part of the ultra low cost handset line, sold by Vodafone and it comes with features like a colour screen, voice and SMS support, plus FM radio. This candybar phone doesn’t have a price or availability just yet, but as far as we’ve heard it’ll also reach developing countries, for a reasonable price.

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Manufactured by Huawei (Huawei Joy), the Vodafone 845 is expected to be the smallest Android 2.1 smartphone on the market – thanks to the fact that it has a 2.8 inch QVGA display and it measures only 100 x 55 x 13 mm.

The phone’s features apparently include: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (900/1800/1900 MHz), UMTS/HSDPA (900/2100 MHz), optical trackpad, Wi-Fi, Vodafone 360 services, Google Maps, Gmail, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 3.2MP camera. Vodafone 845 should be available starting this quarter across Europe.

Vodafone 845 Specifications

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