Vodafone Hutchison Australia announced at a recent event in Sydney that Australia will be among the first few countries to have the 5G network by 2020. Adoption of the 'fifth generation network' is definitely a top priority, along with customer satisfaction services and customized mobile plans.
This is definitely good news for people 'down under' as a speedy network would mean no more buffering of videos and faster downloads. While it's too early, in a private testing of 5G connections in 2015, the British scientists were ecstatic with its one terabit per second results. BBC reports suggest that such a speed "would be theoretically possible to download a file 100 times the size of a feature film in about three seconds." However, according to Mashable, Vodafone Group Technology Officer Johan Wibergh still had no answer regarding the speed. "Short answer: we don't know," was all he could manage.
However, the company's chief technology officer Benoit Hanssen is pretty excited about Australia getting 5G-friendly by 2020. The country with a readiness to always welcome new technology also has a population that can back these moves. Vodafone team has great hopes pinned on 2018 which they expect to be a milestone year. "The reality is by 2018 the NBN will be reaching about 10 million households and that is something that represents a significant shift in this market," said chief executive Inaki Berroeta, "2018 ... is going to be a milestone. That is a year when we will see quite a bit of change in the fixed broadband market," as per information on Business Insider.
As a step towards this milestone, Mobile Live World observes that the country's third-largest mobile operator has struck a deal with TPG Telecom for $700 million in September, to connect their 3000 cell towers using TPG's fiber-optic cable network. However, a lot of details need attention with most of the network yet to be rolled out. Their now 15-year association is said to cover about 4000km of fiber, of which Vodafone has already consumed 900km.
While Vodafone is gaining momentum towards their goals, competition like Telstra and Singtel-Optus are eyeing similar timeframe for their own launch of 5G network. Telstra's former CEO sent out their message clearly in his statement, "[5G] addresses the world of an Internet of things. You can imagine a world in 2020 where almost anything that could be connected will be connected."
The coming years will definitely keep the telecommunications industry on its toes as the mobile operators vie for the top position in terms of 5G network, which is yet to be defined. Vodafone Australia, for one, seems pretty confident. "We do think that as [5G] comes out, Australia will be there."
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