Optus Demonstrates Australian first network capability with Ericsson at Tech Day

Additional information

Optus Network Update

• Optus has switched on its 900Mhz low band spectrum which will extend Optus’ 5G footprint.
• The update will increase Optus’ 5G coverage by 20% on a per-site basis.
• Optus has secured its new spectrum licenses for 20 years, commencing in July 2024 but has secured early access to some of the spectrum band to deploy the 5G network.
• A total of close to 1000 sites have been activated with 5G 900MHz to date with the rollout progressively continuing.

Tech Day

• Three live and 15 digital demonstrations were conducted showcasing how Optus and Ericsson are driving 5G technology innovation.

5G Dynamic Network Slicing (Optus, Ericsson, Cradlepoint)

• In an Australian first, we demonstrated how carriers can create different network slices, each with its own performance characteristics and security rules, to uniquely support the different types of applications businesses rely on.
• This enables flexible and dynamic separation of services and enhances traffic steering to maximise quality of experience on a single device, compared to a static slicing where different applications need to be on separate devices. Now applications on a “work profile” can use a premium network slice and applications on the “personal profile” use a default slice. During network congestion scenarios, work profile applications are guaranteed good user experience.
• Using end to end dynamic slicing with an Android 13 Google Pixel Pro 6 Phone we leveraged Optus’ 5G standalone live network based on Ericsson’s 5G Core and RAN with network slicing capability enabled, and also with Cradlepoint 5G routers at the WAN edge to conduct this test.

Outdoor precise positioning (Optus, Ericsson, FrontierSI)

• The demo shows how global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Real-time kinematic (RTK) precise positioning using 5G cellular network delivers accuracies improvement from 5m to 5cm.
• Users rode a scooter with a 5G-based High Accuracy GNSS positioning kit along a defined route and their track as measured by this was compared to the surveyed position of the route
• In an Australian Government grant-funded project under the 5G Innovation Initiative, FrontierSI, Ericsson and Optus also demonstrated this High Accuracy GNSS solutions for 5G with field trials of Agricultural, Drone and Augmented Reality applications, including a world-first end-to-end test of the latest positioning technology compliant with the standards of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

ENDS 

Media contact:

Justin Stolarski
Ph: (02) 9037 8179
E: media@optus.com.au