Huawei upbeat on Vodafone-3 merger

The equipment maker's local CTO Peter Rossi said he believed that Vodafone's 3G network upgrade to cover 94 per cent of the population could negate the effects of the now-approved VHA Australia merger.

"What we'll see in the 3G terminal [modem] space is that when Vodafone turn on their 3G network footprint upgrade, that will increase terminal demand in the market," Rossi said.

He also believed Optus' continuing push to ink reseller agreements - such as Internode in April - will increase the overall size of the market.

"Optus is always signing reseller agreements and increasing their terminal orders, so there will be growth there," Rossi said.

"The push to newer technologies promoting speed increases to 21Mbps and 42Mbps could also increase demand."

Rossi was unable to confirm how many USB modems Huawei had sold in Australia to date, but estimated it to be several million units.

"We do sell a lot," he said.