Australian cellco Optus, working in partnership with Swedish vendor Ericsson, has introduced 5G connectivity in Tasmania for the first time. In a press release regarding the development, the companies confirmed the implementation of new technologies capable of delivering high capacity and broad coverage 5G and 4G services utilising existing 2100MHz and 1800MHz spectrum. Working with Ericsson, the first of nine initial Optus 5G sites were confirmed to have been switched on in Hobart, while a further will be activated by June 2022.
According to Optus and Ericsson, the ‘technology milestone’ utilises a 5G Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) Carrier with Massive MIMO capability on a dual band 1800MHz/2100MHz 4G/5G Active Antenna integrated radio unit (AIR 1641). It was claimed that the implementation of this technology allows Optus to offer 5G services, with both high capacity and coverage, in areas where 5G 3.5GHz spectrum is currently unavailable. In addition to the deployment of the 5G FDD technology in Hobart, meanwhile, it was also confirmed that Optus has switched on the first commercial 5G Max site in Tasmania, introducing mmWave technology to the state for the first time.
‘We’ve been working incredibly hard to be able to bring 5G to Tasmania and today’s announcement is the first step towards achieving this,’ said Lambo Kanagaratnam, VP Networks Optus, adding: ‘We’ve started off with Hobart but we know that our customers across the state are eager to connect to our incredible 5G service so we will continue to look at opportunities to deploy this technology, together with our partner Ericsson, more broadly.’
Source: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2022/03/11/optus-switches-on-5g-in-tasmania-for-the-first-time/