That’s a lot of 4G…
Telstra has announced this afternoon that it’s expanding its 4G coverage to 85 per cent of the nation’s population by Christmas this year, with a big focus on regional coverage.
Unlike other telcos like Optus and particularly Vodafone, Telstra has had a substantial head start when it comes to its network roll-out. Right now, it’s the largest 4G provider in the country in terms of coverage and plans to continue that lead with today’s announcement.
As of right now, Telstra says that it has made good on its promise from last year to expand its 4G network to 66 per cent of the Australian population, and has pledged to expand to 85 per cent by Christmas.
Telstra calls it a “Christmas present for its customers”: a 1500-base station upgrade program to power up 4G to more of the nation by year’s end.
The 4G network is currently being slammed with traffic. There are now 2.1 million 4G networks on the Telstra network, with traffic growing by an average of 23 per cent month-on-month, and the telco is now assuring us that it will deploy 4G smarter to tackle congestion issues. The breakdown of those devices goes as follows: 1.4m handsets, 150,000 tablets 370,000 dongles and 320,000 hotspots are using the network.
Telstra is also stacking spectrum in regions like Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth on the 1800MHz band to compete directly with Vodafone’s 20MHz of contiguous spectrum by offering the same amount. Telstra is also stacking spectrum in Sydney and Melbourne, now offering 15MHz of contiguous spectrums around those capitals.
Here are some of the new regional towns being covered by the end of the year (46 in total):
New South Wales
• Ballina
• Batemans Bay,
• Grafton
• Kiama
• Muswellbrook
• Nelson Bay
• Corlette
• Ulladulla
• Casino
• Leeton
• Merimbula
• Moree
• Mudgee
• Murwillumbah
• Narrabri
• Yamba
Victoria
• Colac
• Sale
Healesville
• Kilmore
• Lakes Entrance
• Stawell
Queensland
• Bargara
• Innes Park
• Dalby
• Beaudesert
• Biloela
• Charters Towers
• Goondiwindi
• Gordonvale
• Innisfail
• Kingaroy
South Australia
• Strathalbyn
• Berri
• Kadina
• Kapunda
• Loxton
• Wallaroo
Western Australia
• Ellenbrook
• Collie
• Margaret River
• Northam
• Denmark
• Donnybrook
• Dunsborough
• Manjiump
Tasmania
• Latrobe
Telstra will continue to announce the rest of the 200 towns in time.
Are you going to be covered? Tell us in the comments!