Australian operator Telstra, in collaboration with Qualcomm and Ericsson earlier this week launched what they claim is the world’s first commercial Gigabit LTE network. The group said Telstra’s upgraded network now features 1 Gbps download speeds and peak upload speeds of 150 Mbps.

The Gigabit experience is currently live in Sydney via select CBDs, and the previously announced Gigabit Netgear device, the Nighthawk M1, will be made available to consumers later this month.

New data from Comptel suggests there’s a desire among mobile consumers for personalized customer service that’s not being met. A survey of 2,000 mobile data users in the United States and United Kingdom found 55 percent of mobile data customers are eager to receive more proactive, personalized offers, but only 13 percent ever received such a communication.

More than half of consumers in Comptel’s survey – 52 percent – said they feel like they’re treated as just another nameless customer by their carrier.

“It’s no longer enough to simply react when the customer faces a negative circumstance,” Comptel CMO Ari Vanttinen said. “To retain customer loyalty, carriers must be much more proactive in their communication, and that communication must appear genuine, tailored to individual needs and behaviors; it needs to harness personalization.”

Linio’s 2017 Tech Price Index revealed the number of hours consumers would need to work at minimum wage in a variety of countries to be able to afford the latest devices. To earn an iPhone 6, the report found workers in Canada would have to work the least amount of time at minimum wage – 0.37 weeks – to cover the cost of the phone, followed by workers in the United States and Mexico, who would have to work 0.46 and 0.87 weeks, respectively. Consumers in Venezuela would have to put the most work in to get an iPhone 6 at more than 20 weeks of work at minimum wage.