Telstra has moved to buttress its claims that it delivers high-quality services to the bush with the release of a new report citing improvements in infrastructure and reach.

The telecommunications company released on Sunday its Country Wide Advisory Board report, which claimed Telstra had improved its levels of service to regional Australia. The report's release comes amid a background of political jostling over the full sale of the government-controlled carrier.

The prime impediment to the full sale of Telstra is the reported level of service to regional and rural Australia. The National Party claims it is not prepared to support a further sale unless it is assured telecommunication services in rural Australia are sufficient for the needs of the community.

Chris Zipf, public affairs manager for Telstra Country Wide (TCW), told ZDNet Australia the Advisory Board report lays out the successes of TCW, and would be central to Country Wide's submission to the Estens Review. The advisory report will be forwarded to over 5,000 political, business and community leaders over the next few weeks.

However, Zipf denied Telstra was lobbying for a full sale of the company, saying it was a matter for the government. "There's three million people outside of the big cities, and that accounts for $3 billion in revenue," he said. "It's a big market. People say we're only out there for political reasons but we're out there for business reasons."

Ubiquitous telecommunications analyst Paul Budde claimed Telstra should develop and reveal a concrete plan for supplying affordable broadband to regional and rural Australia. He said satellites are a good option for remote users but small to medium towns cannot have a satellite dish on every roof.

"Without a proper plan of action that clearly indicates how regional Australia will be broadbanded I would be very wary of a full privatisation of Telstra," said Budde.

The Telstra Country Wide Advisory Board, established to inform Telstra as to what regional Australia wants from the telco, announced in its report that the number of ADSL enabled exchanges in regional Australia had increased to 260.

The report also stated that the CDMA mobile network now covers 97.75 percent of the population, and that Telstra has signed a deal with Iridium to use its satellites to provide satellite mobile coverage across the entire continent and out to sea.

"We are making strong gains in connecting people to what they say they need and want," said Zipf. "There's always more work to do."

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