Launceston and Hobart now have 5G sites in the central business district, as Telstra starts rolling out the latest mobile phone technology across the state.
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Telstra Regional General Manager Tasmania Michael Patterson said the company had switched the sites on and was planning the infrastructure.
“5G will require a large investment in new infrastructure.
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“But for people to take advantage of 5G, they need handsets that communicate with the 5G towers.”
Telstra had partnerships with handset companies and would be selling phones within the next few months
He was commenting on the Deloitte report 5G:The new network arrives, which predicted the commercial launch of 5G this year, with up to 10,000 fixed wireless 5G services in operation by the end of 2019.
NBN will always be cheaper for high data users.
- TasmaNet MD Joel Harris
The report also expected up to 50,000 5G mobile handsets would sell in Australia in 2019, at 5 per cent of global sales.
An Optus spokesperson said it would take several years to install the 5G network, but it would have 1200 sites up and running by mid next year.
"Tasmania will be part of our 5G network rollout and we will announce the timeline for that later this year.
"Our priority is to offer our customers access to the best 5G handsets at the best value when they become available later this year."
TasmaNet MD Joel Harris said 5G was a direct threat to NBN fibre to the node, curb and building because they had limited speed for the foreseeable future, but the NBN would be less expensive for large data users.
He did not expect strong opposition to 5G network on health grounds because the faster waves used in 5G did not penetrate as deeply as the current mobile phone waves.
5G is expected to be 10 to 20 times faster than 4G because it uses faster wavelengths.
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