Telstra
A businessman checks his mobile phone as the sun filters through a Sydney park August 4, 2014. Telstra Corp. Ltd, Australia's largest telco, reported a 14.3 percent rise in annual net profit on August 14, 2014, beating analyst expectations, and announced an A$1 billion ($930.1 million) share buyback. Picture taken August 4, 2014. REUTERS/David Gray (AUSTRALIA - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS)

Telstra said on Thursday that as part of its expansion, the carrier's 4G coverage would be accessible to 90 per cent of Australians. The telco would also widen its 700MHz commercial trials to include selected zones in Sydney, Adelaide, Darwin, Bundaberg, Yamaba and Sarina when the 700Mhz offering is switched on next week.

The expansion of the 700MHz is to provide subscribers better signal into buildings, car parks, elevators and similar closed structures.

Telstra will formally switch on the 700MHz services on Jan 1, 2015 and will initially be available within a 3-kilometre radius in all capital city commercial business districts and 50 more regional area. Until December 2014, Telstra will hold commercial trials of 700MHz.

Ahead of the formal switch, at least 20 per cent of traffic is already using the new 700MHz LTE band, the availability of which is key to the carrier's LTE-A offering where mobile device's data connectivity are aggregated across multiple spectrum by combining the 700MHz and 1800MHz bands.

Kate McKenzie, chief operations officer of Telstra, said the carrier plans to have one million 700MHz-capable devices in the hands of consumers by the end of 2014. One such device is the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, said Telstra Mobile Products Executive Director Warwick Bray.

"Our strategy is to get as many devices in our range and out customers hands ahead of launch," said Bray, who added that the LTE-A would provide subscribers better and more reliable speeds.

In adding the 700MHz and 2600MHz bands to its 4G services, Telstra spent A$1.3 billion, according to McKenzie. It includes doubling the peak download speeds of the company's 4G mobile services to 300Mbps.

Current 4G services have a peak speed cap of 15-Mbps, but the use of the new 700MHz spectrum would allow Category 6 devices that have peak speeds of 300Mbps.

McKenzie said the use of the 700MHz band is Telstra's way of staying ahead of demand as Australian consumers use more data with the availability of a larger number of devices that could access the Internet.