Telstra chief executive Andy Penn unveiled the ACT’s first 5G network tower near Canberra airport on Wednesday, as he named Ericsson as a partner in the build of the mobile network.
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The announcement comes two months after the government revealed a ban on Chinese providers such as Huawei and ZTE from participating in building the network.
Four more towers will unveiled in Canberra this week, two in Fyshwick, one in Phillip and one in Lyons.
There would be 200 sites nationwide by the end of the year, Mr Penn said.
In testing, Telstra was getting speeds of three gigabits a second download on 5G, but over time, the technology was capable of much faster still, he said.
Telstra area general manager for ACT and south NSW Chris Taylor said the 5G network would improve communications in anything from medicine to entertainment.
“Medical breakthroughs like remote surgical procedures in real time is going to become more of a reality,” he said.
On entertainment, he said, “you might be at home during the footy season watching the Raiders on TV. If you’ve got to go out you can watch the Raiders live on your device without buffering."
It also meant people who travelled overseas would have "that seamless experience".
“I don’t think we really know yet how people are going to use this network as well, and that’s the exciting thing.”
The 5G network promises faster speeds and greater capacity, but lovers of apparently indestructible flip phones will need to make plans to upgrade within the next few years.
“As we did with 2G, ultimately we will retire 3G but that’s a good number of years away,” Mr Penn said.
When pressed to give an estimate of when the 3G network would retire, he said within the next decade.
While assuring that phone plan prices would not change as a result of 5G, customers will need to buy compatible devices due to hit the shelves within the next 12 months to use the new network.
“You’ll need to buy the phones, but those phones will also work on 4G and 3G,” Mr Penn said. “The most important thing is that we’ll help our customer’s transition up to the new technology bands.”
Responding to questions about whether 5G would overtake the national broadband network, Mr Penn said the mobile network was different.
“There’s no doubt that customers are increasingly looking to go mobile, particularly for home broadband,” he said.
“Will it completely replace the NBN, no it won’t. Will an increasing number of customers choose to not have NBN and go mobile? Yes, that’s right.”
