Telstra to open its 5G-powered internet service to more users

Telstra will set a limit on the number of 5G fixed wireless services it sells per postcode as it finishes trials of the service and starts offering the product more widely.

Fixed connectivity group owner Sanjay Nayak said in a blog post that Telstra would offer a single plan targeting home and business users.

The plan comes with 1TB of data at full speed, which the telco quotes as “between 50Mbps and 600Mbps” on the downlink and “between 10Mbps to 90Mbps” on the uplink during the evening peak. It is priced at $85 a month.

If the 1TB quota is exceeded, the speed is “capped at 25Mbps, and slowed further in busy periods until [the] next billing month,” the telco said on its website.

“There is no option to top up [the] data or move to a higher data plan.”

In launching the service, it was unclear how many customers Telstra had modelled onboarding.

The service is said to be “available in select areas and [for] eligible customers only”, with a “limited number of services available per postcode”, though this limit is not quantified.

Telstra said its service qualification tool would take into account a number of variables such as capacity and signal strength before making a call on whether an additional service in the area can be supported.

5G-powered fixed wireless services are being sold in some places as an alternative to the NBN.