Optus Makes Its First LTE Phone Call

It’s still in the baby steps stage, but Optus has announced that it’s started its 700MHz LTE trials, making its first LTE phone call.

Phone calls aren’t exactly what spring to mind when I think LTE, but I guess you do have to start somewhere with LTE. In Optus’ case, that somewhere was Bendigo, where it’s commenced its LTE trials in the 700Mhz spectrum space freed up by the switching off of analogue TV broadcasts. Optus isn’t just testing at 700MHz; the release notes that it’s assessing how 700Mhz performs in comparison to “other” LTE technologies, although it’s not clear which other LTE bands are up for comparison. The tests are also intended to check that 700MHz LTE doesn’t interfere with existing digital TV broadcasts. So if your TV in Bendigo goes all blocky, you know who to blame. [Optus]