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Telstra Urges 5G Spectrum Sale As Number One Focus For New Minister

A senior Telstra executive has urged newly appointed Communications Minister Paul Fletcher to speed up the sale of millions of dollars worth of radio wave spectra to telecommunications companies to bolster the rollout of ultra-fast 5G mobile networks.

The “number one” focus for the incoming minister should be ensuring there’s no delay in the spectrum auctions, Telstra’s head of networks Channa Seneviratne said during the launch of Australia’s first 5G-connected smartphone.

Telcos buy access to the different radio waves through an auction process for transmission rights held by the communications regulator. The major mobile providers splashed out hundreds of millions of dollars to secure 5G-compatible frequencies in December, and more 5G-compatible spectra have yet to be auctioned.

“From our perspective we don’t want a delay in the spectrum auction,” Mr Seneviratne said.

Telstra is aggressively ramping up its 5G network in an effort to win tech-savvy consumers, with 10 city CBDs now connected to the new technology and 35 expected to be connected within the next 12 months. The 5G networks are twice as fast as existing 4G networks.

Australia is the third country where the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G has been launched. It hit speeds of 1.2Gbps during its demonstration in Telstra’s flagship Sydney store on Monday morning, which is twice as fast as 4G.

The networks are predicted to usher in a new era of business and consumer applications, with 5G speed and low latency making virtual reality and smart connected devices much more feasible. Analysts have predicted the new networks could connect everything from agricultural sensors to driverless cars.

Singtel Optus vice-president of regulatory and public affairs, Andrew Sheridan, said in a statement the telco was expecting to work with Mr Fletcher and the government “on decisions critical to Australia’s 5G future such as more effective, efficient deployment rules for 5G”.

In March, Optus called for sweeping changes in the way planning approvals worked for the new networks’ physical sites, warning the current costs of site approval and access could be “prohibitive”. The technology for 5G requires a rollout of thousands of small cells rather than larger base stations, requiring more approvals.

Mr Seneviratne said Telstra had not found the current planning arrangements prohibitive to the rollout of its infrastructure.

“Our strategy is that we are installing 5G initially where we have 4G,” he said. “With smaller cells there’s a lot of work that has been going on around small cell deployment in general for 4G and 5G … We think we’ve got good relations with government and councils.”

Industry group the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association chief executive Chris Althaus has also urged the incoming minister to remain focused on the opportunities presented by ultra-fast 5G mobile networks.

Mr Althaus said industry and government needed to collaborate  to ensure a clear path for network deployment and allocation of spectra was developed to enable an effective 5G future.

Telecommunications lobby group Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton said Mr Fletcher had a history of reducing red tape and recognised “that a balance needs to be struck between the imposition and costs imposed on industry and consumers by additional layers of regulation, compared with the benefits that can be generated”.―SMH

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