Australia's Telstra saying that it has secured early access to the
700 MHz spectrum for commercial trials starting in mid September. Services will
start in selected pockets of Sydney and Adelaide CBDs.
4G services on 700MHz spectrum will be rolled out in more cities
and regional centres as spectrum becomes available in January 2015.
This extends the number of commercial trial cities to eight, with
commercial services already being tested in Perth, Fremantle, Esperance,
Mildura, Mt Isa and Griffith.
Group Managing Director Networks, Mike Wright, said the expansion
of commercial trials on 700MHz is an important step in the development of this
new 4G technology and will ensure telstra can provide full
commercial services to its customers as soon as possible.
"In addition to faster download speeds, the use of low band
spectrum like 700 MHz allows for the signal to travel further and reach deeper
into buildings, improving the depth of coverage for our customers.
"Telstra also has double the holdings of 700 MHz spectrum
than the other carriers, and, this combined with our existing 4G services,
doubles the 4G capacity of our network in these areas, and means we can support
more customers, using more devices, doing more things at the same time. This is
particularly important given the continued explosion of mobile data."
The benefits of the new 4G service will be available immediately
to customers using 700 MHz-ready devices A range of additional smartphones and
other connected devices compatible with 700MHz 4G is expected in the coming
month.