Telstra (ASX: TLS) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announced the completion of a major upgrade to King Island's mobile network infrastructure providing a significant boost in connectivity and achieving a world-first and close to tenfold capacity boost for the island's community with the launch of Australia's longest over-water microwave telecommunications link with a throughput capacity of 9.8 Gbps with 99.99 percent availability.
The upgrade sees a 116km microwave link deployed across the Bass Strait from the Australian mainland to King Island's Cape Wickham - the longest over-water link of its kind in Telstra's national mobile network. With this achievement, Telstra and Ericsson have achieved the world's longest 10 Gbps microwave link. The upgrade was made possible with the deployment of Ericsson's MINI-LINK 6200 Long haul Microwave technology, providing essential backhaul support for the deployment of new Ericsson 5G mobile on the island, further helping Telstra expand its network and deliver better connectivity for regional Australia.
With this deployment, Telstra is set to transform connectivity on King Island, with local consumers and small business customers benefitting from increased mobile coverage, efficiency, capacity, and data speeds, along with greater network resilience.
This project was funded through an AUD $9.8 million joint investment by the Australian Government, Telstra, the Tasmanian Government, and King Island Council which was announced in 2021 to deliver valuable infrastructure to rural and regional communities.
With the support of this capability, Telstra plans to use Ericsson's MINI-LINK 6200 Long haul Microwave solution to extend its mobile coverage in other remote areas.
Iskra Nikolova, Telstra Executive for Network and Infrastructure, says: "Telstra's partnership with Ericsson continues to deliver innovation that helps us keep Australia's rural and regional communities connected. Improving the capacity of backhaul connectivity to our sites, particularly in challenging extremities of our network is always a key focus. Delivering greater mobile connectivity and network capacity to King Island is just the latest step in our commitment to improve our options for our consumer, small business and enterprise customers living or working across the country."
Emilio Romeo, Head of Ericsson, Australia and New Zealand, says: "The increased efficiency provided by Ericsson's MINI-LINK 6200 Long haul Microwave technology enables Telstra to establish high capacity backhaul over great distances and hard-to-reach places, as seen on King Island. Ericsson and Telstra have long been pushing the boundaries together with mobile technology, and the milestone microwave link at the centre of this project demonstrates the innovation we have achieved together to bring reliable high-speed connectivity to the areas in Australia that need it most."
