1200Mbps download and 64Mbps upload are speeds that Telstra showcased at their launch of 5G in Australia. The fifth generation of cellular data goes above 4G considerably in the speed department.
The raw speed is great but one must note that mobile networks are no saviour for mass internet delivery. You can see this in effect at events like a popular football game or festival the capacity is simply too high for the nearest towers to deal with.
That must also be kept in mind with this 5G rollout, the speeds are great now because no one is using it however once it becomes more of the norm there will be more connections and the load will be shared around.
5G speeds compared to NBN
According to this report the average NBN speeds during busy times for the 100/40Mbps plan was 87.97Mbps and the 50/20Mbps was 44.34Mbps.
These figures are most likely held up by the superior NBN hardware of FTTP which is fibre to the premises. Fibre optical cable is used from the hub right into your house. The common, “cheap”, slow and job half done method of FTTN (fibre to the node) uses old copper wire from the neighborhood node. It is this use of the old copper wire that will set parts of Australia back for years to come.
With the above in mind 5G network sits 10 times faster than the better, average NBN speed.
This report shows Telstra as having the faster 4G speed on average of 40.11Mbps. Which is well below of what 5G will deliver and it sits close to the average speed of the 50/20Mbps NBN plan.
Not an NBN replacement
Australia is the third country to roll out 5G so we are no laggards in this, but i cant help and feel it being used as a get out of jail card for the NBN failure. To put it bluntly 5G isn’t a replacement and shouldn’t be either.
The demand and desire for 5G would be nothing if the NBN rollout had been executed to something that wasn’t an embarrassment for those involved.
The latency and reliability especially in high density areas is always questionable with wireless transmitting. Fibre cable goes so much quicker and can carry much more.
5G also has gained attention as potentially being unhealthy, that i wont go into. However one must think that blasting high strength signals into humans environment is very unnatural.