Australian operator Optus is conduncting LTE tests and has achieved 50 Mbps downlink and 20Mbps uplink speeds. Trials of the new network are currently underway in Sydney.

A second phase of the Sydney trials will be conducted in the 1800Mhz band in the second half of the year.Optus has selected wireless network vendor Nokia Siemens Networks to provide the equipments for the LTE trials.

“The second trial will establish LTE… and will determine performance issues, and the key things to look for around the engineering of the technology,” said Henry Colbert, Optus director of product portfolio planning reports Computerworld. 

Last month Australia's Telstra & Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced to achieve a peak download speed of 100Mbps and upload speed of 31Mbps over a 75km distance using LTE technology. 

Optus is now awaiting the Government's release of a comprehensive new spectrum policy road map covering all details of the expected allocations in the 700MHz and 2.5GHz bands to provide the certainty required for investment in and planning for next generation mobile services.

Australian Government has already decided to release 126 Megahertz of broadcasting spectrum (frequency range 694 to 820) as a digital dividend.This spectrum will become available as a result of the switch to digital-only television broadcasting, which will be completed in Australia by 31 December 2013.