Mobile base stations increased

Telstra tripled the number of new mobile base stations it installed last year, compared to 2002.

Lawrence Paratz, acting group managing director at Telstra Country Wide, said the organisation had increased its mobile base stations by almost 18 percent to 7,157.

The telco estimated that more than four new base stations were installed each working day during 2003.

This involved installing an extra 1,080 extra mobile base stations Australia-wide last year, according to a statement from Telstra.

Paratz said more than half the new base stations were installed in rural and regional areas.

"At more than twice the geographic size of the GSM network, CDMA has grown by 670,000 square kilometres -- or almost 83 percent -- since July 2000," he said. "If you have a car antenna installed, you can now access mobile phone coverage across almost one-fifth of the Australian land mass."