Telstra pumps $20m into West Oz networks

The telco said that the DWDM network investment ‘will increase the capability and efficiency of Telstra’s optic fibre networks’ in the south west and Goldfields regions of Western Australia.

Each DWDM transmission system allows for expansion of up to 40 channels of 10 Gigabits per second of information and is capable of supporting high bandwidth customer capacity including Gigabit Ethernet (GE) services.

In addition to DWDM transmission systems, the implementation of Next Generation SDH rings will benefit Telstra customers by providing large capacity transmission paths from regional areas of the state to Perth, allowing improved bandwidth and redundancy to these areas, according to Michael Lawrey, executive director of Telstra Network and Technology.

Telstra has completed a similar network upgrade between Perth and Port Hedland recently, delivering greater reliability and world-class network capacity for residents, businesses and emerging mining companies in the Pilbara region.

"Telstra is out there in regional Australia making major investments in areas where no one else has infrastructure to help regional based businesses such as large mining companies compete on the world stage, regardless of location," said Geoff Booth, head of Telstra Country Wide.

Telecommunications providers – in particular, Telstra – came under fire in this month’s Regional Telecommunications Review over inadequate network infrastructure investments in some regional areas.

Western Australia was identified as one of two states and territories to make submissions to the review that led to the 'inadequacy' finding.