Telstra steals NBN’s lunch
The first auction of 5G spectrum will be undertaken in March, with each bidder to be given the opportunity to buy up to one gigahertz of spectrum. Telstra head of networks Nikos Katinakis says that one of the telco’s first uses for the spectrum it intends to purchase will be for 5G fixed wireless products that will aim to compete with the NBN. He says Telstra will target these products at locations where “the NBN does not provide what the customer wants”, and that it will target neighbourhoods rather than individuals.
From The AFR:
Telstra says it will use every last inch of a massive mobile spectrum acquisition coming this autumn to gain an advantage in the 5G race, including through bypassing the national broadband network with fixed wireless home broadband.
The first auction of the ultra-fast 5G millimetre wave spectrum will take place in March, and the telco’s head of networks, Nikos Katinakis, said among its first uses will be for 5G fixed wireless products competing with the NBN…
It confirms what many in the industry had suspected: that Telstra would aggressively push 5G as an alternative to fixed line internet, a domain the telecoms giant once dominated but that has now been forcefully handed over to the national broadband network at huge cost to Telstra’s bottom line. Moving customers off the NBN and onto its own mobile network would fatten margins considerably.
Telstra is shaping up to be the big winner from the NBN debacle.