Telstra and Nokia Siemens Networks Achieve 100Mbps LTE Connection Over 75km

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2010 – Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications firm, and Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Finland’s Nokia and Germany’s Siemens, has achieved a 100mbps down speed on its LTE network over a record breaking distance of 75Kilometers.

The tests were conducted between Mount Hope and Mount Burrumboot in central Victoria, Australia as part of an effort to support the nation’s broadband goal of 100mbps to 90% of homes by 2018.

Australian Prime Minster, Kevin Rudd, has said of broadband “Just as railway tracks laid out the future of the 19th Century and electricity grids the future       of the 20th Century, so broadband represents the core infrastructure of the 21st Century”

The trial used commercially-available LTE-ready Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), with pre-commercial LTE USB dongles from     third-party vendors.   This new trial bodes well not just for Nokia Siemens but also for Verizon Wireless which plans to blanket the United States in LTE over the next few years.

Kalevi Kostiainen, head of Nokia Siemens Networks, Australia and New Zealand said, “.The benefits of LTE in urban environments are currently being deployed globally, having already been extensively tested and the business benefits well understood. Through this unique joint trial we can now see how LTE can be extended to provide cost effective solutions for rural and remote environments.”