Telstra has today announced plans to move beyond their 4GX network, with updates to their network in a move towards 5G.
Telstra has announced that they will be deploying Cat9 LTE-A in capital cities around Australia by April 2015. Telstra has also announced that the first handsets capable of using the expanded capacity will begin to arrive later this year.
Telstra’s Cat9 LTE network will offer a 20+20+20MHz Tri-band carrier aggregation to achieve speeds up to 450Mbps.
Telstra will also begin adding LTE-Broadcast and Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) capability to their entire 4G network, with VoLTE to launch to consumers later this year. VoLTE will be available to a number of handsets after a software update and Telstra will announce more on this as the launch approaches.
Telstra will also be moving towards launching a 5G network here in Australia in 2020, working with Ericsson to build a customised 5G network for Telstra customers. The move towards 5G will mean an overhaul of the network to ensure a consistent end-to-end experience for customers.
Speed doesn’t mean crap if you burn through your data plan in a day
I know that speed at the handset is important, what they need to figure out now is contention. They need to allow many more handsets to connect at the same time, while maintaining a decent level of speed.
What benefits does 5G offer? Surely carrier aggegation (presumably with 700, 1800 and 2600) will provide more than enough speed for years to come.
I’d like to see Telstra roll out L700 (and L2600 too) everywhere, rather than constantly focussing on improving speeds in CBDs.
By the way…impressive that you’re covering this when you’re not even in the country. 😉
Can’t even get 4G in some major cities/areas and they are pushing forward with 5G where 4G is already brilliant.
Pathetic!
So true Ray.. It is like the NBN putting in fibre to the basement first in those buildings that already have it which in itself is an issue due to noise from competing systems but next door is an apartment complex with twice the number of apartments and no fibre isn’t being done. Stupidity abounds.
What capital city do you reside? Telstra flies in Melbourne