Fresh off the purchase of a pile of spectrum last week, the Australian network operator TPG Telecom has unveiled plans to build out its own wireless network down under.
After laying claim to a pile of 700MHz spectrum in an auction held by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, TPG has confirmed its intention to challenge the incumbent Telstram Singapore’s Optus, and Vodafone Hutchison Australia in the Australian mobile marketplace. They are already an MVNO there with 500K subscribers, so they are not starting entirely from scratch but rather will be building out their own infrastructure now and reducing their dependence on the others.
That will include more than 2000 tower sites, and will obviously leverage the company’s landline infrastructure. TPG also owns both AAPT and iiNet, which it gained through acquisition in recent years. The network buildout will require some $450M in capex and aims to cover 80% of the population.
In addition to the new spectrum acquired this week, TPG has acquired spectrum in the 1800MHz and 2500MHz frequencies over the years. Maybe next they’ll pick up some millimeter wave spectrum a la AT&T and Verizon in the US.
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