As a consumer, all you see is the little 5G logo on your smartphone or modem. But behind the logo, there’s more than meets the eye. Not all 5G networks are created equal, and recent benchmarks and tests have revealed that ours is more equal than most. In fact, these tests give us even greater confidence that we really do have Australia’s best 5G. By a lot.

The testing

umlaut has a reputation as the global industry leader in mobile benchmarking. You may remember umlaut as the people who awarded us best mobile network in Australia in late 2019. As we move into the second half of 2020, we’re still out to impress thanks to the results of its most recent Australian 5G Audit Report.

With separate Samsung Galaxy S20+ 5G devices in tow, one on each carrier’s mobile network, umlaut drove over 7000 kilometres around Australia measuring the availability and speed of the different mobile networks from Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.

Data tests included a stress test to measure file download and upload speeds, live web browsing testing, YouTube streaming, and latency tests.

The results

So, how did we do? If you’ve ever used our 5G, you won’t be surprised to learn that our speed is the real deal.

According to the umlaut results, Telstra 5G has the highest average download speeds, and our 5G coverage was more widely available in all of the eight cities tested. As just one example, Telstra showed nearly twice the 5G availability in Melbourne compared to its nearest competitor and our 5G average download speeds were nearly twice as fast. And in Sydney, the tests showed our average download speeds were nearly 50 per cent faster than our closest competitor.

5G availability results around Australia. (Source: umlaut)

The average download speeds on our network show we’re well ahead of our competition.

On average across the eight cities tested, our 5G achieved average download speeds above 220 Mbps, which is an excellent result. These results mean that we have the highest average download speeds in each of the tested cities when measured against our closest competitor. Our network speeds also peaked at over 900Mbps in one location, which is truly remarkable.

The graph below shows that our 5G is also more widely available in all the cities tested according to umlaut’s results. umlaut’s “5G availability” is defined as the percentage of time during the survey that a 5G connection was possible (meaning 5G coverage was present). This means their 5G availability metric is a measure of coverage availability on the routes driven and we consider this broadly corresponds to coverage.

5G availability results around Australia. (Source: umlaut)

While the tests show we have greater 5G availability in the eight major cities and regional centres tested, there are dozens of other cities and towns that we have unique 5G coverage in that aren’t included in the survey. So it’s only the tip of the iceberg on our 5G coverage around the country.

These results tell a much deeper story than a simple speed test does, demonstrating that our 5G is not only faster (on average), but is available in more places in the cities tested.

View the full results of umlaut’s Australian 5G Audit Report.

Building bigger and better for a faster future

We’re excited to have such a great 5G network for our customers ready to use right now, but we’re not done building yet. We’re already in selected areas of 53 cities and regional towns around Australia with a 5G service, and more than 10 million Aussies now live, work or pass through our 5G network footprint each day. This puts us a long way ahead, and we’re not about to slow down.

Our CEO, Andy Penn, recently said that 5G will shape the 2020s, and we’re leading the charge. Our 5G network already covers around one-third of the population, and by June next year, we aim to cover 75% of the population.

We continue to invest heavily in 5G. In the five years to end June 2020, Telstra invested $7.5 billion in our mobile network nationally with much of this on 5G. Not only that, earlier this year we made the decision to bring forward $500 million of capital expenditure from the second half of FY21 into calendar year 2020 to help us accelerate the 5G roll-out at a time when Australia needs access to the digital economy more than ever.

We want all Australians to enjoy the benefits of Australia’s best 5G. And we’ll stay busy to ensure it hits your street soon.

To see where Telstra 5G is available, and where it will be available in coming months, check our coverage maps.