Telstra to invest an extra $500m in its mobile network

Both Telstra and Vodafone Australia are spending heavily to upgrade their networks as they struggle to out-compete each other and keep up with Australians’ voracious demand for mobile data.

Telstra has committed to investing an additional $500 million to expand its mobile network, taking the total planned investment over the three years to June 2017 up to over $5 billion.

CEO Andrew Penn made the announcement in a keynote speech at CEDA in Sydney last week.

He said the company is increasing its total capital expenditure investments up to 15% of sales for the next two years.

Through the expansion, Telstra aims to increase its 4G coverage to 99% of the population and build over 750 new mobile base stations.

The company also plans to deploy new-generation LTE technologies including voice over LTE, LTE broadcast and the next evolution of LTE-Advanced, which promises to provide peak network speeds of up to 600 Mbps.

Voice over LTE involves routing voice calls through the IP-based LTE network, eliminating the need for devices to fall back to a 3G connection while making a phone call.

“We are committed to maintaining our network leadership in Australia — offering superior experiences for what matters most to customers,” Penn said.

“Ultimately, what customers want is better coverage, better call and speed reliability, fewer dropouts and faster downloads.”

Vodafone Australia meanwhile revealed it has reached a milestone in its core network upgrade, announcing that all of its customers are now using the new network for 4G data sessions.

The company has been upgrading its network in collaboration with telecom equipment vendor Ericsson, CTO Benoit Hanssen said.

“Our new core network offers greater agility and flexibility, and for customers that means a better 4G experience. Through our investment, we’ve created a strong, stable and reliable network, and we’re now building on that with the expansion of our new world-class core network,” he said.

The operator now plans to introduce voice over LTE later this year. Vodafone’s 4G network currently covers 96% of the metropolitan population.

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