No Australian will live without mobile coverage (almost)

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 13 February 2007 03:34

Business IT - Networking

With new technology from Ericsson soon to boost the range of its Next G network to 200kms, Telstra has already upped its coverage claims from 98 percent of the population to 98.8 percent.

That figure leaves only about 200,000 Australians living outside mobile coverage, and the range-extending technology has yet to be installed. However Telstra does not claim this coverage to handheld devices: a car mounted antenna would be needed at the extremities of the coverage areas.

These claims will be thoroughly tested over the next few months by the ACMA which is undertaking a Government mandated audit of Next G coverage  to ensure it matches that of Telstra's 2G CDMA network, which Telstra wants to shut down in January 2008.

At the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona, Ericsson said it would achieve two significant milestones later this week: launch of the world's first 200km cell range in a commercial mobile broadband network and maximum network downlink speeds of 14.4Mbps, both on Telstra's Next G network. "This is a major leap from the 50km range typically supported today," Ericsson claimed.

In its announcement, Ericsson said: "Telstra's Next G network coverage provides mobile broadband access to 98.8 percent of Australians, covering 1.9 million square kilometres." Hitherto, Telstra has consistently been claiming 98 percent coverage.

"Just four months after the launch of Telstra's Next G network, Ericsson's Extended Range software has been installed in selected mountaintop sites across Australia, supporting all 3G services over extensive geographical areas," Ericsson said.

The software upgrade also means the Next G network data capacity has now been tripled: to peak network speeds of up to 1.9Mbps in the uplink and 14.4Mbps in the downlink, Ericsson claims.

"Downlink speeds of 2.3Mbps at a 200km range have also been achieved during testing. This also provides an increase in overall capacity for existing Next G customers, even in the network's busiest periods... Already, the Next G test bed is testing 7.2Mbps data cards for launch in mid-2007 on Telstra's 14.4Mbps capable Next G network." Ericsson said.