Telstra has today switched on its 4GX service in parts of central Melbourne and surrounding suburbs.The service is now available in parts of Melbourne’s CBD, along with suburbs including St Kilda, Windsor, Albert Park, South Yarra, South Melbourne, Docklands, West Melbourne, North Melbourne, Collingwood, Fitzroy, East Melbourne, Parkville, Elsternwick and Cremorne.
By January, 4GX services will cover an area spanning three kilometres of the Melbourne GPO, and will be expanded across Telstra’s mobile footprint over time, Telstra stated.
Telstra unveiled the newly named 4GX service, which uses Telstra’s new 700 MHz spectrum, at the beginning of the month, which it states pushes typical mobile download speeds of up to 2 to 100 Mbps for customers with compatible devices.
Telstra states it also employs LTE-Advanced technology to bring together the telco’s 1800 MHz and 700 MHz 4G
spectrum bands to “supercharge mobile web speeds even further on
compatible devices”.
Compatible 4GX devices include Samsung’s Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4, and Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2.
“Melbournians are relying on mobile connectivity more than ever – the explosion in applications, shift towards mobile video consumption and use of mobile in commerce means demand for connectivity continues to grow strongly,” commented Telstra director of networks Max Jennings.
“We’re staying ahead of this demand by introducing 4GX to boost network capacity.”
New figures released by Telstra show 100 TB of data is carried through the Telstra mobile network in Melbourne every day, with mobile data carried over the network in a typical day having increased 500-fold over five years, while the peak time for mobile data usage is between 5-6pm.
“Customers using devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Telstra Wi-Fi 4G Advanced II in 4GX areas are set to enjoy typical download speeds of 2 to 100 Mbps, which means top speeds twice as fast as those available on our existing 4G,” Jennings commented.
