Australia is one step closer to having its first 5G mobile service. Today, Telstra switched on 5G technology across selected areas of the Gold Coast. Here are the details.
Telstra has switched on 5G-capable sites on the Gold Coast as part of its $5 billion in mobile network investment. It will now test “pre-commercial” 5G devices in real world conditions over the coming weeks.
“Today’s switch on demonstrates Telstra’s commitment to mobile leadership in Australia and will support the ongoing testing of next generation mobile technologies in Australian conditions to support the early commercial deployment of 5G mobile services,” Telstra CEO Andrew Penn said.
“Over the coming months we will continue expanding our 5G coverage with plans to roll out to more capital cities, regional centres and other high demand areas.”
Telstra plans to have 200 5G-capable sites up and running by the end of 2018. This will allow it to connect compatible 5G products in 5G areas when they finally become available.
The network will support both sub 6GHz and mmWave spectrums in the future. The sites turned on using the licensed 3.6GHz spectrum are connected to Telstra’s new production core network which virtualises the various wireless network functions onto common data centre computer hardware.
There’s no hard dates on when Telstra’s 5G network will be made available to customers – or what the first compatible phone will be. But Penn claimed today that Australians would be among the first to benefit from the technology. Watch this space!
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