First LTE base stations go live for Telstra

The news comes just weeks afterwards Optus chief executive Paul O'Sullivan said his company wasn't but seeing consumer demand for the at once generation of 4G networks and devices, adding that plans to deploy the standard by rivals like Telstra were little more than "bragging rights".

This morning, Telstra executive director of networks and access technologies Mike Wright said the first 4G base stations use the LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) standard and hardware from Ericsson had been switched on in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane, with 4G data having been sent over the towers for the first time outside of trials. The move is part of Telstra's earlier announced plan to have LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) deployed to the central business districts of all capital cities and some regional centres by the end of this year.

Wright said that with more than a million mobile clients joining Telstra in the past 12 months and data usage on the telco's At once G network doubling every year, the increased network capacity LTE would provide would be "vital".