Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/01/31/telstra_boosts_wa/
Telstra upgrades coverage in West Australia
Footprint to pass half-a-million square kilometers
Posted in On-Prem, 31st January 2012 22:30 GMT
Telstra is tipping infrastructure investment equivalent to $AU106 million into the state of Western Australia as part of an extension to regional mobile phone coverage.
Following a competitive tender Telstra has secured the contract to build the Regional Mobile Communication Project (RMCP).
The tender has been funded by a State Government’s investment of $AU39.2 million through the Royalties for Regions program.
Telstra contribution will be delivered via both direct capital expenditure and access rights to Telstra’s infrastructure. It will include 113 new mobile sites to bring increased coverage to regional and remote areas of the state.
Construction of the first sites is already underway and it is anticipated the project will be completed over the next three years.
The Telstra mobile network will increase its geographic coverage by about 22 percent in WA - from 430,000 square kilometers to more than 525,000 square kilometers.
Following the completion of RMCP, more than 8,300 km of the state’s highways will have near-continuous car-kit coverage, improving mobile phone coverage along all the major highways throughout regional, rural and remote Western Australia.
The upgrade will provide economic benefits to regional Western Australia through an expansive, advanced and integrated voice, video and high speed mobile broadband network and improve emergency services capabilities for both government and non-government organisations. ®