The Australian operator announced the news just before the opening of Mobile World Congress, the mobile industry's annual gathering, which is expected to attract 100,000 people to Barcelona this week.
The company said it will build the LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B) network across Australia, starting this year and aiming to complete the build-out in 2018.
The network, which Ericsson is supplying to Telstra, will offer high-quality video and audio to the company’s customers. At first services will be available only on certain Samsung devices, Telstra warns.
LTE-B is part of the portfolio of LTE services as defined by the industry’s standards body, 3GPP.
Telstra’s group managing director networks, Mike Wright, said that 99% of Telstra’s 4G sites are already LTE-B capable, “with the intention to have nationwide enablement and coverage for LTE-B by 2018”.
Wright added: “Telstra’s LTE-B product roadmap will include 24 × 7 linear streaming, live sports coverage beyond stadiums, pre-loading of popular content, news clips and games highlights. We plan on enabling LTE-B across many devices, and are excited to deliver an enhanced mobile experience to our customers.”
Elisabetta Romano, Ericsson vice president and head of media solutions, said: “We are working closely with Telstra to deploy new technologies that help Telstra’s business. Our solutions enable Telstra to collaborate to deliver seamless connectivity and service continuity with LTE-Broadcast, with scale and great quality of experience.”
Telstra and Ericsson said they are working to build momentum in the LTE-Broadcast global ecosystem via the new LTE-Broadcast Alliance, which will have its inaugural meeting during Mobile World Congress 2017. The LTE-Broadcast Alliance Forum will bring together the industry’s leading players to collaborate on the development of LTE-Broadcast, and further stimulate ecosystem momentum.
In addition, as part of the LTE-B Alliance with Verizon, EE and KT, Telstra is working to ensure LTE-B enablement in Android devices from major vendors to provide a substantial addressable market for future LTE-B products.
