Telstra, the number one telco in Australia, has clearly led the race in the 4G war and was the first company to announce 4G plans.

Over the next two years, Telstra will invest $500 million in developing its 4G network and adding another 1000 sites to its portfolio by June next year, growing the network as more 4G compatible handsets are released. The upgrade to 4G has already been a major contributor of the telco's $3.6 billion spend in fiscal-year 2012.

How Telstra has rolled out 4G

Michael Wright, executive director of Telstra operations/network and access technologies, says the decision to refarm Telstra's 1800MHz spectrum, which it was previously using for 2G services, allowed the company to offer a 4G service earlier than it could have otherwise.

With the spectrum secured for the technology, Wright says Telstra has tried to reuse existing mobile base stations. By reusing the 2G spectrum, the telco has also been able to reuse a large amount of its infrastructure for that 1800MHz frequency.