Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is planning to invest $618 million to expand its high speed mobile network in Australia, (through its Australian unit Optus) in order to cover 96 per cent of the population within three years.

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is planning to invest $618 million to expand its high speed mobile network in Australia, (through its Australian unit Optus) in order to cover 96 per cent of the population within three years. This is to challenge Telstra Corporation’s dominance in rural areas. Optus’s profits have recently declined because of competition with Telstra, which had extended its next-generation high speed network to the rural areas in mid-January 2007.