Telstra has introduced what it calls ‘4GX’ service to customers in selected areas of Australia.

The operator said it is leveraging LTE Advanced carrier aggregation (CA) on its new 700MHz network and its existing 1.8GHz network to offer peak download speeds in the (very varied) region of 2-100Mb/s. It currently has 3,500 4G base stations. Ericsson is a major supplier.

The operator didn’t offer specifics on where the 4GX trials would start but said the service will be offered in all central business districts (plus a 3km radius from city centres) and 50 regional centres by 1 January.

Telstra announced in early September it was expanding the coverage area of its planned 4G trials on its newly-acquired 700MHz spectrum to 20 additional metropolitan and regional centres. Commercial service on the 700MHz network will start at the beginning of next year.

The 4GX coverage, which appears to overlap exactly with those trials that started in September in six cities, is apparently the new name for its LTE CA service. Telstra and its former Hong Kong subsidiary CSL, which it sold earlier this year, both called their 3G networks ‘Next G’.

A Telstra statement said customers with LTE category 6 devices (such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4) can have peak download speeds of 2-100Mb/s while those with category 4 devices will have 2-75Mb/s speeds.

Responding to a tweet, the company said Melbourne would have coverage by the beginning of next year.

One tweet thanked Telstra for resisting the urge to call the service ‘5G’.