Telstra expands WA regional coverage

Telstra has championed the impact of its $290 million effort to provide coverage to regional Australia, one day after building its 700^th tower in Western Australia's Mid West.

That program, which has delivered about 200,000 square kilometres of coverage to customers nationally, began in 2015 and has been partially supported by the federal government.

Telstra Corporation’s head of networks and IT, Nikos Katinakis, said new coverage was delivering benefits to Australia’s rural communities.

“We can sometimes take for granted what mobile connectivity can mean, and for these communities mobile coverage has meant the ability to do the simple things, EFTPOS transactions, call and message with family and fast mobile broadband to stream and download content,” he said.

Mr Katinakis said locals in Arrowsmith East had told him new coverage in the area meant they could now work on their farms and make telephone calls at more convenient times.

“The completion of Arrowsmith East delivers coverage to the last 100 kilometres of road, between Mingenew and Eneabba,” he said.

“Through a combination of our own investment and the Mobile Black Spot Program the Brand Highway now has coverage almost the entire length.”

Telstra has said it will build a further 35 mobile sites under its state-sponsored blackspots program.

Shares in the telecommunications provider were trading at $2.76 at 1:40pm AEDT, up $0.02 on opening.