Telstra is backing LTE to help mobile operators lower their costs when it comes to providing mobile broadband services, but the Australian incumbent does not plan to roll out the technology across its coverage area.
“We’ve got LTE on our roadmap,” Mike Wright, executive director, wireless engineering and operations at Telstra told conference attendees at Broadband World Forum Europe on Tuesday.
“[However] we don’t need it tomorrow he said, adding that even when the time comes, the company does not plan to overlay its entire HSPA network with LTE.
“I don’t think I could afford it,” Wright said.
He explained that Telstra will likely deploy LTE in Australia’s major cities, and rely on dropping down to HSPA elsewhere.
“Every operator will be different... but that’s the way we see it unfolding,” he said.
In order to maintain margins, mobile operators need to “take cost out”, Wright explained. “It’s about driving the cost of a bit down” by using technology, he said.
Telstra launched its mobile broadband network in October 2006 and has since increased speeds to 21 Mbps. In the same time, “we’ve halved the cost of a bit through a cell,” Wright said.
But as demand for bandwidth grows and constraints on spectrum lead operators to build more sites, capex and the cost per bit increase. However, operators can address this with technology.
“And that technology is LTE,” Wright said.