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]

[PapaGoose Posted Feb 5th 2009 9:57AM]

As the Australian media points out as well, all of the mobile telcos here are dropping the ball, since the G1 is coming out as the rest of the world gets ready for the G2

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 11:06AM]

Hey, you guys are still doing better than the Canadian telcos. Though, really, it would be hard not to outdo this bunch of assholes.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 2:10PM]

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/

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 5th 2009 3:39PM]

is it me or is the keyboard different