The Queensland government decided to aggregate its existing 100-plus telephony plans in a tender which made securing its business conditional on new infrastructure investment, in a bid to increase coverage in remote parts of the state.
"We had three main goals," Paul Lucas, the Queensland Minister for Innovation and the Information Economy told ZDNet Australia. "The first was to encourage the provision of adequate infrastructure in the bush...where the market left to itself wouldn't have provided adequate infrastructure." He said the other two goals were to get good value for their mobile phone spend and simplify the mobile telephony plans.
The AU$54 million contract over three years will be shared by Telstra and Optus, which have each committed to increasing mobile phone coverage in remote Queensland.
As part of the deal Optus will build up to 80 GSM mobile phone towers -- an extra 17 on top of 23 the telco had already planned, with a further 40 to be linked to the government's use of Optus services.
The Optus towers will improve coverage on the Flinders Highway from Townsville to Charters Towers; Peak Downs Highway from Mackay to Clermont; Gregory Highway from Clermont to Springsure; Capricorn Highway from Rockhampton to Emerald; Dawson Highway from Gladstone to Theodore; Burnett Highway from Biloela to Gayndah; Burnett Highway between Gladstone ad Maryborough and north of Mossman; and the Warrego Highway from Dalby to Miles.
Telstra has also agreed to increase CDMA coverage by 17,000 square kilometres as part of the deal, covering Rathdowney, Thargomindah, Dajarra, Flora Downs, Paroo Creek, Mary Kathleen and Nonda in western Queensland, Wujal Wujal near Cooktown and St Pauls on Moa Island in Torres Strait.
"The planned coverage will include more than 370-kilometres on highways and the first of the new base stations at Nonda will be commissioned by December this year," said Telstra Country Wide Regional Managing Director Don Pinel.
It has been reported that Victorian highways enjoy 96 percent mobile phone coverage, NSW gets 84 percent coverage while Queensland only gets 76 percent.
"This is about making a difference and delivering an outcome that is smart, that hasn't cost taxpayers a cent, and which will result in new contracts that will significantly reduce the costs of mobile telecommunications for the State Government," said Lucas.
The federal government has criticised the claims of the Queensland government, with the Minister for Communications, Senator Richard Alston issuing an announcement claiming only 26 new mobile towers would be built rather than the 89 advertised by the state government.
