Telstra Say Home 5G Not An NBN Replacement
Telstra is leaning heavily on its 5G internet services at the moment, but despite this big subscriber push, it claims it isn’t a replacement for NBN.
“So let me answer a question that I know you have,” Telstra’s executive for networks and IT Nikos Katinakis said at yesterday’s investor conference.
“Is 5G fixed wireless a replacement for NBN? The answer to that is no.”
“The average consumption of a fixed customer is now in the 300 GB range a month,” Katinakis continued, “mostly between 8-10 pm.
“The average wireless customer is in the 15-18GB per month range. And it is spread almost across a 14-hour window with two peaks: 9PM to 9AM and 4-6PM.
“Putting 25 times more demand onto the network is just not feasible at this point, but it is definitely feasible to offer a fixed wireless access service to the subset of our customers that just don’t get a good enough fixed broadband service.”
CEO Andy Penn further explained:
“We’ve made it very clear: we’re targeting 5G fixed wireless solutions where it is the appropriate technology for our customers.
“5G offers some great experiences, not suitable necessarily in every situation, but there are certain customers, for whatever reason, they may be using a copper lead in on fibre to the node, or they may be in 4G fixed wireless on an NBN service where a 5G fixed wireless solution could actually offer them a better experience for a similar price.”