“We want to grow Optus and take back the market share,” Lew, pictured, told Fairfax Media. “The network construction is a big, big part of what we want to do. We will get [our mobile network] to being the best.”
It’s a big ask: Telstra currently has 16 million mobile customers, compared to Optus’ 9.4 million
Optus is set to spend $1.2 billion on both its fixed-line and mobile networks in the current financial year. Telstra is planning to spend $1 billion in the same period.
Spectrum possession will play a big part in the coming struggle. Telstra this month got access to the $1.3 billion in 700MHz spectrum it bought at auction in 2013; Optus bought about half that amount for $649 million.
But Lew told Fairfax the sheer size of Optus’s 2300MHz holdings, while less suited for penetrating buildings, will deliver download speeds of hundreds of megabits per second in crowded areas like shopping centres and sporting arenas.
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