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

Trial was conducted between Mount Hope and Mount Burrumboot in central Victoria. 

"Australia has the sixth largest landmass with the ninth lowest population density in the world so any technology we introduce has to travel long distances, cover large areas and still perform to the levels Telstra customers have come to enjoy," said Michael Rocca, Telstra’s chief operations officer.

"Telstra’s Next G™ network does this extremely well today and we want to ensure that when we bring LTE technology to Australian consumers, our customer experience remains one of the best in the world,” Mr Rocca said.

The extended range field trial was conducted between Mount Hope and Mount Burrumboot in central Victoria by engineers from Telstra and Nokia Siemens Networks. The trial used Nokia Siemens Networks’ commercially-available LTE-ready Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), with pre-commercial LTE USB dongles from third-party vendors. 

Kalevi Kostiainen, head of Nokia Siemens Networks, Australia and New Zealand said, "The outstanding results of this trial were made possible through close collaboration between Telstra and Nokia Siemens Networks. 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."

Telstra had chosen Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei to conduct trials of LTE. The LTE trial is expected to run for three to six months.