News
The Australian operator also noted that it now has over one million 5G-capable devices connected to its network
Last month, the Australian regulator announced the results of the country’s latest spectrum auction, this time in the 26GHz spectrum, also known as mmWave. In total, the auction raised AUD647.6 million and saw all of the nation’s major operators take home a share of the spectrum.
In the auction, Optus secured 116 of the 360 available lots of spectrum, spending AUD226.2 million, with the licence being valid for 15 years.
Now, it seems that the operator is set to put the spectrum to use immediately, announcing the activation of numerous mmWave sites across the country, four in Sydney, one in Melbourne, and one in Brisbane.
The sites will make use of both the 800MHz and 26GHz spectrum Optus has available to it, with the operator suggesting that they had already been testing the mmWave spectrum at the sites for many months.
"We’ve been testing mmWave for many months, harnessing and pushing its capabilities so that once commercial devices enter the market our customers will truly be able to benefit from the capacity and speeds that this incredible technology delivers," said Optus managing director for networks Lambo Kanagaratnam.
"In fact, mmWave is set to blow current mobile and home internet speeds out of the water, with the potential for multi-gigabit speeds which is much faster than what Australians are used to getting today."
Optus currently has over 1,200 5G sites across the country, with the aim of bringing mmWave capabilities to more of these sites in the coming weeks.
Demand for 5G services has “surged in recent months”, according to Optus’s MD of marketing and revenue, Matt Williams, noting that eight out of ten handsets sold are now 5G-capable. The operator now reportedly has 1 million devices connected to its network that are able to use 5G.
Want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the world of telecoms? Subscriber to receive Total Telecom’s daily newsletter here
Also in the news:
O2−Virgin Media Media gets go-ahead
Eir Sport to cease broadcasting after waning income
Rakuten and NEC set to take Open RAN global
