Telstra, Ericsson link cities with LTE

Telstra and Ericsson have successfully conducted a high-quality video link-up between Sydney and Melbourne using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

The test was conducted on Thursday last week and involved Telstra using Ericsson LTE technology over Telstra's Next G network to make a video call between the telco's Sydney and Melbourne offices via LTE. The throughput speeds achieved in the test were approximately 80 megabits per second (Mbps).

Telstra's executive director for networks and access technologies Mike Wright noted on Telstra's Exchange blog that it was the first inter-capital LTE connection in Australia.

"This video call was a very important and unique milestone in our trial with Ericsson, which is testing how this new technology integrates with the core of the Next G network," he said. "We've been watching LTE developments for almost five years and we have a very clear roadmap for how we will use this technology."

"We don't see LTE as a separate network but rather an integrated solution that [works] as transparently as possible with the Next G network, so testing the technology on our actual network was one of the key objectives of the trial with Ericsson," he added.

This is the company's third such test of LTE technology; Two tests were conducted in July with technology providers Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks. The Nokia Siemens trial achieved speeds of 100Mbps over 75 kilometres.

Below is a video of the Ericsson test, provided by Telstra.