Customers of Telstra's Next G™ network in regional and rural Australia will benefit from Telstra acquiring additional licences in the 2.1GHz band for more than 1400 base stations.

The new 2.1GHz licenses will be used to provide additional capacity at both existing and future Telstra Next G™ network sites throughout regional and rural Australia.

“Data carried on the Next G™ network is doubling every 12 months. Over half of the data traffic on the Next G™ network is driven by regional and remote users,” said Telstra Chief Operations Officer, Mr Michael Rocca.

“These new licences are fundamental to our ability to continue to meet our customers’ demand for ultra-fast, reliable wireless broadband. At Telstra we are continuing to upgrade the speeds we are offering customers on the Next G™ network, including our recent announcement that over 100 regional centres are covered by our dual channel technology, meaning that they can access typical download speeds of between 1.1Mbps - 20Mbps.

“However, as the data traffic increases across the Next G™ network, at ever increasing speeds, we need to build capacity in the network to carry this traffic - and this additional spectrum will enable this to occur economically. Telstra forecasts that the wireless data traffic we are carrying today is a small proportion of the volumes we will be carrying in 2013,” said Mr Rocca.

The Telstra Next G™ network has more than 7000 base stations, offering coverage to 99% of the Australian population over an expansive 2.1 million square kilometres of the Australian landmass plus over 1 million square kilometres out to sea. Since launch of the Next G™ mobile network in 2006, Telstra has completed nine world firsts on this network, including being the first mobile operator in the world to offer HSPA+ dual channel technology to provide a peak network downlink speed of 42Mbps (actual customer speeds will be less). The speeds offered by Telstra are enhanced by its on-going investment in Ethernet backhaul technology which currently services base stations covering over 90 per cent of the population.

The release of these 2.1GHz licenses for public mobile telecommunications is most welcomed, and Telstra is pleased to invest in this spectrum to secure the network capacity which usage on the Next G™ network is demanding. Areas that will benefit from the additional spectrum licences include Hervey Bay, Queensland, Shepparton, Victoria, Forbes, NSW and Mount Gambier, South Australia.

Telstra thanks the Australian Communications and Media Authority for undertaking the extensive work needed to release this spectrum for the benefit of regional and rural Australians.