Aussie telco Optus has revealed its plans to launch a 5G network from early next year.
The network will not start out for mobile handsets, it will be for fixed wireless terminals for data services and then eventually head over to handsets once protocols are made valid by 3GPP.
Dennis Wong, managing director of networks at Optus says, “People have been hearing about 5G for some time, and there is pent up expectation, but to date a lot of the talk has been highly theoretical.
“Seeing 5G data speeds through our trial that are up to 15 times faster than current technologies allows us to show the potential of this transformative technology to support a new ecosystem of connected devices.”
The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to Telstra managing director Mike Wright who says the telco is also prepping for 5G and customers should expect it in 2019 but did not specify when.
Optus have been conducting outdoor trials using a live network, it says fixed terminals were able to achieve 2Gbps download speeds. It is expected to showcase the technology during the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast later this year.
