Telstra has announced that visitors and locals on the Gold Coast will be able to get access to their 5G network, with the backhaul infrastructure allowing customers to be some of the first in the world to try the technology.
The 5G hot spots will be located on Scarborough and Nerang Streets in Southport, allowing customers to connect their devices to the network and download up to 10GB of data per device, per day. Obviously there are no 5G enabled smartphones or tablets available at the moment, but the 5G technology will still enable users to download quickly with the 5G backhaul capable of delivering download speeds of more than 3 Gbps, the equivalent of streaming 1,000 HD movies simultaneously. Basically it’s fast WiFi powered by 5G backhaul.
Telstra is also working with Intel, who are trialling their Connected Car on the roads around the Gold Coast which is powered by the Intel 5G Automotive Trial Platform.
The trial is centred around the $60 million investment 5G Innovation Centre that Telstra opened earlier this year. Telstra will be meeting with the 3GPP, the international standard setting body in September this year to consider the global standards for 5G, and having a working 5G setup will definitely benefit them.
The Telstra 5G network is powered by Ericsson, who successfully demonstrated a 2Gbps download speed using 4G technology at Mobile World Congress earlier this month. Telstra’s 5G implementation is expected to deliver faster speeds and lower latency than the current 4G network, though it’s already clocked speeds in excess of 3 Gbps and latency of 6 milliseconds using their mmWave spectrum.
Telstra has stated that they will begin turning on 5G cells around Australia in 2019, though haven’t given further details on the rollout of 5G to the rest of Australia. Telstra will rely heavily on their 4G infrastructure instead of launching standalone 5G cells, at least in the early stages of their rollout.
If you’re in the area, then it’s definitely something you should check out.
