Telstra has connected a customer with a commercial 5G device on its 5G network for the first time.
The first customer using a 5G device is Toowoomba-based FKG Group, a commercial construction and civil engineering company with divisions focused on technology innovation, including data centres, with 800 employees across Australia.
FKG will use the first iteration of the HTC 5G Hub mobile broadband device to test the device’s connectivity to the network, which as the device evolves, will allow exploration of transport, logistics and agribusiness use cases.
While Telstra’s network is 5G ready in parts of Toowoomba, the user experience benefits of 5G are not expected to become available until the first half of 2019.
The initial focus of understanding the customer experience will be on familiarisation and testing of the device’s features and connectivity, as well as an analysis of the improvements to Telstra’s 4G service as sites are upgraded to 5G.
In August, Telstra announced it had started switching on 5G technology, making Australia’s largest and fastest* mobile network the first in the country to be 5G ready. Toowoomba was the first regional centre to be upgraded and there are now 22 5G-enabled sites in the area, where FKG is located.
Across the country, 130 sites have now been 5G-enabled, with another 70 to be upgraded before the end of this calendar year. This series of network upgrades will not only make the Telstra Mobile Network 5G ready but is expected to deliver world leading 4G (LTE) speeds.
Andrew Penn, CEO, Telstra
We expect a range of devices to become commercially available in the first half of 2019 and as soon as they are launched at scale, we will begin to offer them to customers.
