SYDNEY, Australia—Telstra has won a tender from the Australian government to provide mobile coverage for towns in Australia with populations of 500 or more. The tender is part of a program to improve wireless coverage in towns over 500.
The value of the contract was not disclosed.
The rollout of the services will begin this month, and coverage in the first town is expected to be available in June. Under the program, 132 towns will receive CDMA coverage and 40 of the towns will also receive additional GSM base stations to supplement existing coverage. All the towns should receive services by December 2003.
The government also committed $26.8 million to improve regional mobile-phone coverage to 55 towns with populations less than 500, spot coverage for 35 regional highways, improvements in the southwest of Western Australia and a satellite handset subsidy scheme.
With the contract, Telstra said its CDMA network will cover 1.3 million square kilometers.
