Image: Telstra
Over a year has passed since Telstra first announced the trial of its 5G fixed wireless service, with the telco finally opening up the product for somewhat general availability on Wednesday.
Trials users paid AU$85 each month for 500GB, but it has now upped the quota to 1TB while keeping the price at AU$85. It is offering business and home plans with the same cap, for the same price.
Telstra said it is seeing an average download speed of 378Mbps during the peak evening hours of 7pm to 11pm, with the range of speeds during that time sitting between 50Mbps to 600Mbps. For uploads, the typical speed is stated as 46Mbps, and ranges between 10Mbps to 90Mbps. If users exceed the data quota, speeds are locked to 25Mbps, as well as being “slowed further in busy periods until your next billing month”.
With the telco’s 5G coverage sitting at 75% population coverage, Telstra is checking users’ addresses to ensure coverage is available and limiting the number of users per postcode. The telco has said it expects to hit 95% population coverage by fiscal year 2025.
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Telstra is offering its 5G modem for free, and if users cancel within two years, they need to either return the modem via parcel service in good working order in 21 days, or pay AU$29 for each month remaining in the two-year period.
Gamers are warned the service does not deliver single-digit latency.
In September, Vodafone opened up its 5G fixed wireless service to customers within its smaller footprint. It is offering two plans: The first is AU$75 a month and has unlimited data with speeds up to 100Mbps, and the second removes the speed cap for an extra AU$10 a month. Customers who already have a Vodafone mobile plan can knock AU$5 a month off the plan prices.
Optus opened up its 5G fixed wireless service two years ago, and offers similar plans to Vodafone that cost AU$5 a month more.
Earlier on Wednesday, Telstra announced it picked up a five-year AU$1 billion contract renewal with the Department of Defence.
