According to the Daily Mail, Telstra said at the Barcelona World Mobile Communications Conference that the cutting-edge technology, which is 20 gigabits per second, will be launched in Australia from next year. Australia will be the first country in the world to acquire the next generation of 5G mobile network technology, downloading 20 times faster than taxpayer-funded national broadband networks.
Robyn Denholm, the telecoms giant`s chief operating officer, confirmed that Telstra would invest A $5 billion to launch the technology in Australia. "Yes, we intend to lead, we have a world-leading history of different technologies," he said. We will bring the best technology in the world to Australia.
The fiber-optic network is estimated to cost A $49 billion, up from a $36 billion estimate by Rudd`s government in 2010.
In 2013, the incoming Albert administration, (Abbott government), chose a cheaper fiber to replace Labour`s "fibreto-home plan)."
In 2015, the federal government reached an agreement with Telstra, in which taxpayers offered the telecoms giant A $11 billion to unwind its copper wire network and transfer customers to NBN.
It is reported that Telstra will launch its 5G network in Australia from June 2019 to be fully operational by 2020. "We will deploy it in major Australian capital cities and regions," Denholm said.
