Optus bringing G1... er, HTC Dream to Australia later this month

While Telstra's busy bragging about Android sets from HTC that don't yet exist, Australian rival Optus is making stuff happen. How? Easy: T-Mobile's G1 is being repurposed as the HTC Dream down here -- one of the phone's rumored names prior to its original release, you might recall -- featuring 2100MHz HSDPA, WiFi, and everything else you've come to know and love / hate about the world's first retail Android device. It'll launch February 16 on plans starting at $59 Australian (about $38) per month, so it'll be pretty accessible. Sure, Telstra, you may have some awesome devices in the pipeline, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you know what we're saying.

[Thanks, Adin K. and justme]

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 6th 2009 11:16AM]

Okay this is lame. "The phone you've been searching for." compare this with the iPhone's new tagline: "The iPhone you've been looking for."

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 10:50AM]

This would mean Airtel will get it shortly in India ... Singtel-Airtel got the iPhone to India. And as it is HTC has tieup with Airtel for Touch / Diamond! OG

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 11:23AM]

The G1 has plenty of potential but it's... kind of crappy. Who cares.

[Chefgon Posted Feb 5th 2009 12:18PM]

Why is it crappy?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 12:59PM]

Seriously...I would not call it crappy at all. Some less than stellar build issues, but crappy is not at all an accurate description. Android is spectacular and will only get better over time. The hardware of the G1 works well and other than a few creaks and alignment issues it doesn't seem to be any more likely to break than any other phone. If it isn't your cup of tea design wise...well that doesn't make it crappy...just not to your liking.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 11:34AM]

Looks unusually good in this photo.

[Chefgon Posted Feb 5th 2009 12:17PM]

It looks decent from most angles. Most photos are from directly above, straight down, showing no depth. That angle kind of makes the chin look like a weird phone tumor.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 2:09PM]

What the heck does this Australian News site, Smarthouse, mean when answering why get the G1 when the G2 is just around the corner?

"It emerged that the answer may lie in the fact that G2 may possibly be a software upgrade that may be downloaded to the launched Google phone."


http://www.googleandblog.com/australian-news-claims-g2-software-upgrade/3716/

[Chefgon Posted Feb 5th 2009 7:16PM]

They are saying that the G1 software is upgradable to include all the new features of the G2, so why bother waiting. The G2, as far as anybody knows, is nothing more than an alternative physical design with the same hardware specs.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 3:16PM]

Telstra's main 3G network - confusingly marketed as "NextG" - runs at 850MHz on a faster and larger scale than Optus's 2100MHz one which only works near major centres (when it works at all).

So Telstra aren't going to be interested in a 2100MHz device at this stage, even if it does mean not bringing out the first Android device.

Did I mention we still don't have Rock Band 2 here yet? The land down under is sometimes slow to adopt.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 3:51PM]

This is so exciting... now we have something to use on Australia's amazingly BS $40 a month for 15mb data plans. WooHoo!!!

Only thing that stops me from getting a smart phone is the fact that I have to sell a kidney to download an email.

Telstra might boast to have the fastest mobile broadband in the world, but as soon as you break your cap for the month and start hitting the $$$ a mb - ouch!!

They are fast so that they can get you to that point ASAP..

I am (truly) excited about Android though... Love the open source... :o)

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 6th 2009 7:44AM]

Huh? Its not that bad. I get 1GB for $19.95 on Optus. You won't have to worry about downloading an email with that kind of quota. I use my smartphone for email, browsing, internet streaming radio, downloading podcasts, uploading photos to Flickr, tethering to my laptop for browsing on it etc.....

Smartphones are awesome.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 4:05PM]

Yay, it finally arrives!

If I wasn't going to Japan later this year, it'd be high on the list of my next phone. That, or the Pre :D

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 14th 2009 1:02PM]

i have bought the unlock code for my new G1 phone and has successfully unlocked it but the problem is, I do not have internet access on my sim and so is being prevented from using the phone, is there a way i can skip that registration process? i need to badly use my phone.

[Toast Rack Posted Feb 15th 2009 9:33PM]

The phone officially launched today. News story:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/digital-life/mobiles--handhelds/articles/hold-the-phone-googles-on-line/2009/02/14/1234028342911.html

Optus website to order online:
http://personal.optus.com.au/web/ocaportal.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Template_wRHS&FP=/personal/mobile/mobilephones/htcdream&site=personal