Telstra mines 150km cable in six weeks

Telstra has installed a 150km fibre-optic cable across a new mining site in South Australia that will provide wireless broadband, voice and video calling to on-site staff.

Part of a AU$2.4 million project for the carrier, the new cable, as well as an exchange and mobile base station, will serve over 400 staff at the Oxiana gold and copper mine. The mine is located at Prominent Hill, 650km north-west of Adelaide.

The site's wireless services will operate on Telstra's Next G network, replacing the previous satellite network.

Telstra chief operations officer Greg Winn lauded the project and said 66 cubic metres of concrete were laid as part of it.

"Work of this scale would usually take many months, but Telstra employees worked very hard to complete this project in only six weeks despite on-site temperatures over 45 degrees," he said in a statement.

Earlier today, in his address at a business luncheon, Winn lauded Telstra's involvement in a new submarine cable that will run from Asia to the US.

Winn said the Asia America Gateway (AAG) -- the first high-bandwidth optical fibre submarine cable to link Southeast Asia to the US -- was part of an aggressive international connectivity strategy.

AAG will stretch 20,000km and have an initial capacity of 480 gigabits per second. Seventeen telecommunications providers, many from across Asia, are funding the US$500 million link. The group hopes it will later provide speeds of up to 1.92 terabits per second. It is expected to begin carrying commercial traffic by December 2008.

The group, led by Telekom Malaysia, includes AT&T, Bharti AirTel (India), Government of Brunei Darussalam, British Telecom Global Network Services, CAT Telekom (Thailand), Eastern Telecommunications Philippines, Indosat (Indonesia), Pacific Communications (Cambodia), Philippines Long Distance Telephone, PT Telkom (Indonesia), Saigon Postal Corporation (Vietnam), StarHub (Singapore), Telecom New Zealand, Viettel (Vietnam) and Vietnam Post & Telecommunications Group of Vietnam.

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Telstra 150Km cable Anonymous -- 01/05/07

Hmm it seems that they can do this but they still fail to provide my area with anything other than 26 KBps dial up internet

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It's all about $$'s now. Keith Styles -- 02/05/07 (in reply to #320078692)

Telstra doesn't care about the mum's & dad's or the average Australian. It's only concern now that HJ & Co has sold it off, is to make money for it's share holders, many if not most who are Off Shore trust funds,... not your average Australian..

Don't expect Telstra to do anything to benefit Australia. If it doesn't provide it's share holders with substantial returns then to hell with the Australian economy.

END OF STORY!

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It's all about responsible investment now! Rod Schiller -- 15/05/07 (in reply to #320078726)

So, Keith, I assume you see a $2.4 million investment to serve 400 people in a developing mining operation as doing nothing for the Australian economy.

I suggest you obtain a copy of Telstra's annual report to become a little more informed! There is more investment happening quietly behind the scenes than you realise.

When the government finally sees fit to review it's archaic 1990's telecomms policies which restrict Telstra, we may see more happen.

For too long Telstra has had to bend over backwards to help the competition gain a foothold. Enough is enough. As a shareholder, I do not want to see any more assistance given to the competition unless there is an acceptable return on investment to Telstra.

Long live competition in telecommunications. (What a farce!)

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