Australian operator Telstra has picked Ericsson to roll out a LTE network. The company will upgrade its existing Next G network with LTE technology in the central business districts of all Australian capital cities and selected regional centres by the end of 2011. The upgrade will use the company's existing 1800MHz spectrum to bring 4G to areas where traffic demand is most concentrated. It will be integrated with Telstra's existing HSPA Evolution service, which uses the 850MHz spectrum range. By the end of 2011, Telstra will offer its customers LTE mobile broadband devices that operate seamlessly across the 850MHz and 1800MHz spectrum ranges. Ericsson will deploy all LTE radio sites with its new multi-standard radio base station, RBS 6000, and upgrade and expand Telstra's existing packet core network into an EPC network, supporting the new LTE radio network. Services included in the contract are network roll out, design, integration and learning services.
