Telstra Inaugurates 1,500th LTE Base Station

Australia’s Telstra has announced a milestone in the deployment of its 4G LTE network, revealing that it has switched on it 1,500th base station. Commenting on the development of the telco’s fourth-generation infrastructure, Telstra’s networks executive director Mike Wright noted:

‘The programme is now running at pace and is on target – our technicians are now installing literally dozens of 4G base stations each and every week.’

Despite the achievement, the executive was keen to note that Telstra has committed to rolling out more than 2,000 4G base stations by the end of the financial year (June 2013). As a result of the work carried out so far, Mr Wright reiterated that Telstra aims to reach 66% population coverage for its 4G services by the end of next month, while noting that the network footprint already takes in all state capitals, and more than 100 regional and suburban locations.

Meanwhile, in terms of customer uptake, Mr Wright was cited as saying:

‘We now have over 2.1 million services connected to our 4G network and as the network grows we obviously expect that number to grow with it.’