The new Optus tower on Russell Island is nearing completion. Speaking with technicians and installers on-site today (Feb 26th 2020) I have been advised that preliminary testing was completed last Friday (21st Feb 2020). There have been delays in the project due to weather and other factors, but all is looking good for an ‘activation date’ sometime in March.

This new tower was funded by the Federal Government under the Mobile Black Spot Program.

At the date of activation, Optus will be the only carrier providing services from this new tower.

Some technical details

• NOKIA equipment has been used on this site, instead of the usual HUAWEI equipment.
• At launch, the tower will provide 3G and 4G services. There will be no 5G services at launch.
• 4G services will operate at 700MHz only.
• 3G services will operate at 900MHz only.
• There is battery backup on-site, consisting of 5 x 100Ah ‘strings’ of batteries.
• The battery backup is sufficient for up to 3 hours of loss of power.
• The tower is linked back to the Jacobs Well tower by means of a microwave link. Similar to that used by the current Telstra tower.
• There is extra rack space for an additional telco to install equipment. For Optus sites, this is generally Vodafone.

Written by Travis Place from Bay Islands Info