Connecting a world class sporting event from a paddock in regional Queensland to the rest of the world, was a challenge put to Telstra in 2005.

However, organisers of this month's Ridley Polocrosse World Cup have confirmed that Telstra Country Wide® has come up with the communications technology to ensure this month's event will be the best ever.

The week-long international competition will be held at Morgan Park, a multi-purpose sporting complex eight kilometres southeast of Warwick on Queensland's Southern Downs. Previously, the rural 314 hectare facility has not had good mobile phone reception, wireless nor ADSL broadband access.

World Cup Chairman Les Fraser commented, "This World Cup has been two years in the planning and in partnership with Telstra Country Wide, we will provide unprecedented communications coverage to Morgan Park visitors and media this month."

Telstra Country Wide Area General Manager for South East Queensland, Mr Nigel Beaman confirmed that the company had made a number of improvements, including the provision of permanent and temporary infrastructure to the local area. This includes the construction of permanent Next G™ network mobile base stations - Warwick west and Warwick south towers, installing remote exchange related equipment off the local Warwick exchange that allows ADSL technology and the installation of a temporary mobile repeater for in-building coverage in the main complex at Morgan Park.

Mr Beaman said, "This partnership provides a tremendous opportunity to showcase our new $1.1billion Next G™ network at a world class event. While Polocrosse is increasingly being played by urban Australians, it is a sport that has an emotional connection particularly with regional and rural people, who are of course an important audience for us. The communications upgrades will not only benefit this year's Ridley Polocrosse World Cup but importantly, the local community as well."

""Our Next G™ network is the world's fastest and Australia's geographically largest third generation mobile network, providing coverage to around 98.8 per cent of the Australian population. It offers regional and rural customers turbo-charged wireless access to the internet and a host of other new communication services like video calling.

"Experiencing the faster speeds, better coverage and new devices of Telstra's Next G™ network will help regional communities to see the benefits it can bring to their busy lifestyles," Mr Beaman added.

Mr Fraser confirmed that the on-site Telstra Communications Centre would form the hub for distributing competition results to media and the public and its web-based audience. "This is unprecedented for Polocrosse and reflects our commitment to promoting a world class event in regional Queensland," Mr Fraser added.