Telstra today announced that its 5G network now covers around 87% of the population, as part of its half-year results. The telco previously said the network covered 85% of the population. In addition, 48% of Telstra's mobile traffic is now on its 5G network, as of December last year.
Telstra expects its 5G network to cover 95% of the population by the end of the 2025 financial year. Telstra's full network footprint spans 99.6% of the population currently.
For comparison, Optus says its 5G network is available at over 2.1 million homes and businesses. Vodafone is a bit cagier, and says its coverage is available in over 3,000 suburbs across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, Perth, the Gold Coast, the Central Coast, Wollongong, and the Sunshine Coast. Neither Optus nor Vodafone have made a claim of how much of the population their 5G networks cover.
Telstra's coverage update follows a raft of mobile-related news.
On Tuesday, the telco revealed it had achieved record-breaking upload speeds of 340Mbps on its 5G network. 5G upload speeds currently sit around 50Mbps in good conditions.
The upload speed was achieved on Telstra's commercial network, but isn't available to customers yet (and there's no firm time frame yet). Phones and modems that are 5G standalone enabled and have a SDX 65 or SDX 75 chipset will be able to achieve these kinds of upload speeds on Telstra's network in the future.
These chipsets are typically found in high-end phones. The SDX 75 is featured in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, while a SDX 65 equivalent chipset is in iPhone 15 models. Telstra used a Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro - which features a SDX 65 - for its speed test.
And on Monday, Telstra made movement in its transition to LEO satellite backhaul for mobile towers in regional Australia, announcing it made its first phone call using the technology.
Alex Choros
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