Optus will deliver 5G mobile and in the home

Optus will deliver 5G mobile and in the home as it continues to roll out its 5G network.

The key words are ‘Optus will deliver 5G’ because at present there are about 290 test sites Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and other key locations in NSW, Victoria and Queensland covering about 138,000 people.

In the next 12 months that is expected to rise to 1800 sites – that is how Optus will deliver 5G mobile and in the home.

Now forget all the hype of 5G and 20Gbps – Australia’s sub<6MHz 5G is really 4G on steroids, and Optus is offering a 5G Home on a $70 per month plan with a 50Mbps Satisfaction Guarantee.

Optus Chief Executive Officer, Allen Lew said,

“While it is early days, our initial 5G service has a current average speed at peak time of 164Mbps, with the top speed achieved over 5G of 400Mbps.”

Optus 5G will also be available through the Samsung Galaxy Note10 5G, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, LG V50 5G and the Oppo Reno 5G. These phones drop back to 3 and 4G if no 5G signal is available.

Channel 7 GadgetGuy Val Quinn reports

On the Optus home service with the Nokia FastMile 5G modem

“If it is in the right place, in the right part of the country, then yes – it can be a fixed-line NBN competitor.”

Val was commenting on the ‘right part of the country. “Optus has a coverage map (here), and you need to check your coverage here. If you are lucky, then it is an option although nothing can replace the reliability and speed of fixed-line services.”

And on the right place, he was referring to the Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway Optus uses.

Optus will deliver 5G mobile and in the home

“It is really a Gateway, and it needs to be in the house where you get the strongest 5G signal. There are visual cues to help with that. Then you will need to run a Gigabit LAN cable to your existing home Wi-Fi network router. It is not a bad router, but it is meant to cover small apartments only.”