Telstra to address rural 4G black spots

Australia’s Telstra has revealed plans to roll out 135 small cell 4G base stations in remote communities across the nation as part of the government’s Mobile Black Spot program.

The operator is also making the investment as part its efforts to expand its 4G footprint to 99% of the Australian population by June next year.

Telstra has made an A$165 million ($123.1 million) commitment to improve coverage in regional Australia, and will already expand 3G and 4G coverage to 429 other remote communities as part of round one of the black spot program. But the latest small cell roll out will be solely funded by Telstra.

“When we made our bid under Round One, our core objective was to maximise new coverage to regional communities, which is why we made this additional pledge to further expand mobile data services at our own expense,” Telstra group managing director for networks Mike Wright said.

“We worked closely with the Federal Government to identify the communities who were eligible for this small cell technology and we are proud to be part of this important initiative which will connect so many more regional communities.”

While the small cell technology can currently only provide data services, Telstra said it is working on implementing VoLTE technology over the base stations.