Optus testing 5G using 26 GHz mmWave band at four sites in Sydney
Australian operator Optus announced it is testing 5G mmWave technology in partnership with Swedish vendor Ericsson.
Optus noted that mmWave technology will enable higher speed and reduced latency for its customers, especially in highly dense areas with large demand for the Optus mobile network.
Optus has approval from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to operate and test mmWave technology using the 26 GHz band at four locations in Sydney, including its Macquarie Park headquarters where the initial data call was made this week incorporating a Casa Systems mmWave CPE.
“Technology innovation and use case development is a critical component of the work that we do and with mmWave technology expected to become available for 5G in 2021 it’s important that we start testing this technology now so that we can begin to understand how we can best harness its capabilities for our consumer and enterprise customers,” said Lambo Kanagaratnam, Optus Managing Director Networks.
“MillimetreWave 5G is the next step in unlocking mass productivity gains through a high-speed wireless communication layer. The enterprise market in particular is expected to gain from mmWave, with sectors such as autonomous manufacturing, mining and port operations all examples of industries that will considerably benefit from mmWave 5G and its capability to offer higher speeds.”
Martin Wiktorin, Head of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei and Philippines and Global Customer Unit Singtel, said “With the mmWave spectrum auction scheduled for early next year, this announcement is another critical milestone in ensuring that all Australians can benefit from the full potential of mmWave technology. Here at Ericsson, we’re really excited to partner with Optus in its 5G rollout.”
In January, Optus had successfully implemented spectrum sharing technology from Ericsson to made an end-to-end 5G video test call while simultaneously streaming video content on a 4G device. The Optus network was able to assign spectrum resources on both 4G and 5G switching between them in milliseconds to support the different service video demands from both users, Optus said.
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing is a technology that allows an operator use the same spectrum at the same time for LTE and 5G, with the network base stations controlling the allocation of spectrum.
The carrier ended last year with nearly 300 live 5G sites across Australia. Optus previously said it expected to have a total of 1,200 5G sites by March 2020.
In addition, Optus had previously announced the general availability of its 5G Home fixed wireless service across the 138,000 home footprint covered by its 5G network.
Optus is controlled by Singapore telecommunications group Singtel.
