Looks like our Aussie buddies will be getting upgraded mobile networks from both Vodafone and Telstra over the next year and a half, with Vodafone, who has in the past been criticised over poor network performance, replacing practically all of their base stations.

According to an article over on The Register, Vodafone Australia is to replace their current equipment or install new with Huawei equipment at their 8,000 base station sites which could take up to a year and a half to complete.

Apparently the overhaul will begin at the 5800 Vodafone sites already in service and engineers have been asked to locate which sites are getting the highest level of traffic while 2200 new sites will be commissioned.

Apparently upgrades will apply only to the base station that Vodafone brought to the table as Hutchinson base stations are subject to the firm’s 3GIS network sharing agreement with Telstra and once that agreement draws to an end will Vodafone Hutchinson Australia incorporate the remaining base stations.

As for Telstra, apparently the company announced in AustralianIT that they would use QoS tech to handle traffic on their LTE network, which is currently under deployment, and state that QoS technologies are required on a radio network to halt bandwidth hogs such as IPTV along with HD streaming from degrading network performance.