Telstra has announced the official launch of their 5G Home & Business Internet service, which brings serious competition to the offerings by the NBN.
Telstra says that users should expect a ridiculously fast, average typical download speed of 378Mbps during the busy 7pm – 11pm period (typical evening speeds can range between 50Mbps – 600Mbps).
Unlike the 5G mobile plans that vary quite a lot in capacity and price, there is a very simple, single plan on offer here, with Telstra’s 5G Home & Business Internet plan offering 1TB (1000GB) of data. In terms of mobile data this is one of the most generous we’ve seen, with the internet over the mobile network typically capped at much lower downloads, giving the advantage to fixed-line (slower) offerings by the NBN.
1TB per month should be plenty for the vast majority of households, enough for over 330 hours of HD Netflix streaming. The other aspect of internet service is the cost and Telstra is pricing this aggressively at just $85 per month. To sweeten the deal (and possibly encourage you to move from your current ISP, they are throwing in the first month free.
So surely you have to sign into a 24 month contract to get something like this right? Wrong. Telstra is clearly confident this is a product people will love as there are no lock-in contracts or exit fees, just return your modem if you decide it’s not for you.
5G Home Internet will allow most households to stream a 4K movie, jump into a video call for work and download a new game for your Xbox at the same time. This is particularly useful if your existing broadband is not delivering the performance you need.
If you’re a small business and are looking for the simplest, fastest way to get your employees online, this is certainly a great way to go. The 5G Business Internet will allow multiple staff working at the same time and give them access to the speeds they need to be competitive and responsive to their customer needs. For this implementation, you’re probably going to need much more conscious of that monthly data cap, so emails, general browsing and video calls would be fine, but if you’re planning on any large file transfers, you may want to look elsewhere.
The setup is a breeze, with Telstra’s 5G router coming with the 5G sim built in, just connect it, configure it and you’ll have a WiFi hotspot to connect to from all your devices.
When it comes to location availability, Telstra obviously has the largest 5G network in the country, and they’ve spent a lot of the time during Covid-19 expanding their 5G network. This now covers over 75% of Australians, and while that won’t be everywhere, it does mean this internet option will be available to a majority of Australians.
For those not currently in a 5G service area, Telstra says they plan to deliver about 95% population coverage by FY25 and we’ll continue to roll out our 5G network and doubling metro cells to increase density for greater capacity and speed.
5G Home & Business Internet is available in select areas and eligible customers only. Limited number of services available per post code. Check your address for 5G Home Internet or 5G Business Internet at our website.
Too bad even in 5G areas you can’t necessarily get it. Why have a public roll out not accessible to the public?