This morning in the heart of regional Victorian town Wodonga, Telstra held a launch of their 5G network. The launch was attended by the Telstra area manager as well as the mayors from both sides of the border (Albury and Wodonga) who spoke about the potential business benefits 5G has to offer.
The coverage of 5G is typically very directional and to achieve the blanket coverage Telstra has in Albury Wodonga, multiple cell towers required upgrading. While there’s no official number, given what we know about range and speed, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were somewhere between 20 and 30 in the area.
The big deal with 5G is definitely its amazing speeds and today I was able to get a real understanding of what real-world speed looks like. Using a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G (literally borrowed from the local Telstra store) the speedtest revealed a download speeds of 728Mbps.
By way of comparison, I ran a 4G speedtest on my Samsung Galaxy S10+ and achieved 96.1Mbps down. This means you can expect to see as much as a 7x increase in speed from 5G devices.
What’s most impressive about the speeds I seen today is where they were achieved. Most of the 1Gbps speedtests shared online were done standing under the tower, giving it the best possible chance to deliver the best possible number. In reality, that’s not where you use a device in the real-world.
This morning the launch was located near the Water tower in Wodonga, some distance away from the two 5G towers we could see from that location. This park is where people wait for buses, have lunch and spend time as they shop around the main street precinct of Wodonga, representing real-world spaces.
The upload speeds were a little lower than I expected, achieving just 37.6Mbps, a little higher than my 21.2Mbps on 4G.
Telstra Regional General Manager Loretta Willaton said the new 5G capacity, and the ongoing rollout, will not only benefit customers with 5G devices in the selected areas that 5G will initially be deployed, but will also benefit customers with 4G devices in the vicinity of new 5G coverage.
“Telstra has always been dedicated to connecting people in regional Australia and ensuring they are amongst the first to experience the latest mobile technology. It is really exciting Albury-Wodonga will be among the first cities in Australia, indeed the world, to have access to 5G connectivity.
Telstra has been leading the way in pioneering 5G technology with a number of world and Australian firsts – and making 5G technology available to Australian consumers.
Now with the first 5G sites on air, customers in Albury-Wodonga have a chance to be part of that cutting edge. Further to this, as we roll out this new 5G technology, it will also improve 4G capacity and speeds.
We now have commenced the rollout of 5G in 25 cities around Australia.
Telstra Regional General Manager Loretta Willaton
If you’d like to find out more about Telstra’s 5G rollout head to telstra.com.au/5g
Albury City Mayor Cr Kevin Mack said the introduction of 5G would be an important boost to plans by both councils to grow the regional economy under the Two Cities One Community partnership.
“This will enable us to work even more closely together as we roll out our Smart Community Framework to deliver the services and innovations that our cities of the future will need to grow and thrive,”
Albury City Mayor Cr Kevin Mack
Wodonga Mayor Cr Anna Speedie said the higher performance of 5G would enable both councils to build better insights into our community’s future more quickly through improved data and communications.
“These improvements will help to enhance our region’s economic prosperity and liveability, while also improving the safety of our community members.
The commencement of the 5G rollout in Albury-Wodonga is part of Telstra’s commitment to extend 5G coverage to selected areas of 35 major and regional cities across Australia by the end of June 2020.
Wodonga Mayor Cr Anna Speedie
