The two companies are testing the application of LTE technology in regional areas through a combination of laboratory and long range field testing to determine the limitations that physical distance imposes on the LTE customer experience.
Michael Rocca, chief operations officer, said the range testing is of critical importance for the future of this technology in regional Australia and Telstra’s learnings will be of great interest internationally.
“Australia has the sixth largest landmass with the ninth lowest population density in the world so any technology we introduce has to travel long distances, cover large areas and still perform to the levels Telstra customers have come to enjoy.”
“Telstra’s Next G™ network does this extremely well today and we want to ensure that when we bring LTE technology to Australian consumers, our customer experience remains one of the best in the world,” Mr Rocca said.
The extended range field trial was conducted between Mount Hope and Mount Burrumboot in central Victoria by engineers from Telstra and Nokia Siemens Networks. The trial used Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercially-available LTE-ready Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), with pre-commercial LTE USB dongles from third-party vendors.
Kalevi Kostiainen, head of Nokia Siemens Networks, Australia and New Zealand said, “The outstanding results of this trial were made possible through close collaboration between Telstra and Nokia Siemens Networks. The benefits of LTE in urban environments are currently being deployed globally, having already been extensively tested and the business benefits well understood. Through this unique joint trial we can now see how LTE can be extended to provide cost effective solutions for rural and remote environments.”
“Nokia Siemens Networks is a leader in the development and deployment of LTE/SAE technology and this demonstration of capacity and capability with Telstra further reinforces our leadership position,” Mr Kostiainen added.
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