Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG
Optus has officially launched their 5G offering.
As opposed to Telstra, Optus look to be emphasising home-based 5G solutions over traditional mobile plans.
The telco say that 200 customers are already using its Optus 5G Home service and that the fixed wireless package will be rolling out to another 138,000 homes in selected areas from today.
At present Optus say they’ be got over 290 5G sites across Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and “other key locations” across NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Expect that number to rise in the new year, with 1200 sites planned to be in place by March 2020.
According to Optus CEO Allen Lew, “we expect significant 5G customer growth as our 5G network expands and delivers customers a game-changing, world-leading experience on their 5G home and 5G mobile devices.”
“This has been a great learning process for us as we have adapted to insights generated from real paying customers about their 5G experience, and what they love about 5G.”
Distinguishing themselves from Telstra, Lew insists that 5G is not a value-add for existing customers but a core component of their offering.
To that end, the telco are looking to tie 5G into their wider Optus Sports content offering. Optus say that they’ll be optimising their 5G solution to deliver better results when it comes to streaming 4K content and working with partners like 7Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Stan to do the same for their respective content libraries.
From June 2020, they’ll officially be adding 4K Ultra HD Live Football content on Optus Sport for Optus 5 Home customers. This will include things like the Euro 2020, the 2020/21 Champions League and 2020/21 Premier League.
The telco says that these early access customers have experienced a current average speed at peak time of 164Mb/ps and top speeds of about 400Mb/ps.
In addition, Optus will still have 5G phones available “on the go” via an initial range of three 5G-capable handsets: the Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ 5G and the Oppo Reno 5G.
“As we continue to grow our 5G network more and more customers can expect to spend more time enjoying our lightning fast 5G service,” Lew says.
