Optus switches on Standalone 5G network for limited trial

• First customers in Australia connected to multi-band 5G standalone
• Connected through 3500 MHz, 2300MHz and 2100MHz spectrum bands

The first customers in Australia have now been connected to a multi band 5G standalone network as Optus launches Australia’s first end-to-end service trial of this advanced 5G technology.

Connected via the OPPO X3 Pro 5G smartphone the customers will play an important role in testing Optus 5G standalone prior to its full commercial launch next year. When available commercially, the standalone network will provide increased coverage, lower latency, greater reliability for Optus 5G customers enabling real-time connectivity and faster speeds in the future. For enterprise, 5G standalone will be the key to unlocking precision robotics, machine learning and next generation use cases thanks to its ultra-reliable low latency communications.

“The evolution of 5G is moving almost as fast as our 5G speeds and it’s important to us that we continue to deliver our customers with innovative technology that improves their lives. As it matures, 5G standalone is going to play a critical role in enabling a multitude of use cases thanks to its incredible responsiveness and bandwidth. This really is the future of 5G and it’s exciting to be able to get this into the hands of customers so that we can start to test and learn in a real-world environment what 5G standalone is capable of,” said Lambo Kanagaratnam, Optus Vice President Network

“As we build out our standalone network, together with technology partners Ericsson and Nokia, we anticipate a strong gain in our 5G network coverage, which will enable more customers to benefit from Australia’s fastest 5G mobile network as awarded by Ookla^TM, an independent benchmarking company. For our enterprise customers 5G standalone will provide the ability to slice the network into different virtual segments which will offer increased flexibility, maximum efficiency and importantly the opportunity for them to increase revenue through automation.”

‘As a brand, OPPO is all about innovation and pushing the boundaries of technology,” said Michael Tran, Managing Director at OPPO Australia. “Our customers crave the best. They want the fastest, strongest and most reliable smartphone experience possible. We’re excited to be launching this pilot with Optus and to be making lightning fast connectivity accessible as soon as the standalone network is commercially launched next year.”

Optus is working with technology provider Ericsson to roll out its 5G standalone core network.

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