Telstra says it will direct $75 million from the part sale of its Towers business – announced on Wednesday – to further enhance connectivity in regional Australia.

CEO Andrew Penn said Telstra would be guided by the recommendations of the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee in directing the additional $75 million investment.

“RTIRC is about to commence a series of meetings with communities and stakeholders around the country before it makes a series of recommendations on how to improve regional connectivity toward the end of the year,” Penn said.

He added that rolling out, maintaining and upgrading telecommunications technology in regional and rural Australia, is expensive and far from simple – but solving coverage and capacity gaps would be a critical enabler for the digital economy in regional Australia.