Telstra's 5G network now covers 75% of the population

Telstra today announced that its 5G network now covers 75% of the Australian population, now covering over 200 towns and cities.

Group Executive for Networks & IT Nikos Katinkas says Telstra has "almost three times the number of 5G sites" as the company's nearest competitor and twice the amount of population coverage, clearly referring to Optus.

"While our competitors have largely been ignoring regional Australia, at least as far as 5G is concerned, we’ve been busy building a Telstra 5G network more regional Australians are using each and every day," said Katinkas.

"We now have more than 1.5 million 5G devices live on our network and we’re adding thousands more every week as we continue switching on more 5G sites across the country."

As part of the announcement, Katinkas also provided further details around Telstra's plans for mmWave 5G. mmWave 5G operates at a higher frequency, which results in faster speeds at the cost of signal length.

In the short term, Katinkas says "mmWave will be key to growing capacity and depth of coverage in our larger cities in towns". Due to the short range of mmWave, Katinkas says it's unlikely Telstra will be able to use the technology in regional and rural Australia, where there simply isn't enough population density.

While Telstra now has access to mmWave spectrum and over 50 live sites, it has no set goals or timelines for mmWave deployment. Katinkas says the telco will start reporting either site numbers of coverage percentage in the 2023 Financial Year.

In addition, Telstra announced that its 4G network now reaches 99.4% of the population, putting it just off 0.1% off its 3G coverage. 0.1% represents a rather significant difference however, with the 4G network now covering over 2 million square km, but 3G covering 2.5 million square km. Telstra will continue to expand its 4G network to meet the 3G footprint before it shuts down 3G in 2024.

Alex Choros

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Alex Choros is the Managing Editor of WhistleOut Australia and an award-winning journalist. He's been writing about consumer technology for over a decade and is an expert on the Australian telco sector, to the point where he knows far too many phone and internet plans by heart. In addition to leading the WhistleOut editorial team, Alex is responsible for ruining the office Sonos with his troubled taste in music.

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