• World-first live network demonstration of an asymmetric 25MHz downlink 5G channel on a commercial smartphone, getting more from Optus’ existing 900MHz spectrum

Optus and Nokia have demonstrated a new way to get more from Optus’ existing 900MHz spectrum, with the potential to deliver stronger mobile performance in two of the places where connectivity can be hardest to deliver: deep inside buildings and across the vast distances of regional Australia.

Low-band spectrum is particularly important in Australia because it can both travel further across large distances and reach deeper inside buildings. That makes it important to two very different customer experiences: maintaining connectivity across regional Australia and delivering reliable mobile performance in increasingly complex indoor environments.

The breakthrough is designed to make better use of low-band spectrum, which can travel further and reach deeper inside buildings but, like all spectrum, is a finite resource.

It brings together network innovation from Optus and Nokia, with a new chipset from MediaTek and commercial smartphone support from OPPO, demonstrating how collaboration across the mobile ecosystem can turn new network capabilities into technology that customers can ultimately use.

In live-network testing in the ACT using the newly launched OPPO Find X10 Pro Max, the new configuration delivered download speeds up to 91 per cent faster outdoors and 51 per cent faster indoors compared with the existing network configuration.

The world-first achievement uses an asymmetric 5G configuration of 25MHz downlink and 20MHz uplink in the 900MHz band, enabling a commercial smartphone to use Optus’ full 25MHz downlink channel for the first time.

Sri Amirthalingam, Chief Technology Officer at Optus, said:

“This is what good network engineering should do: take a finite resource and find new ways to make it work harder for customers.

"Australians don't think about spectrum or network engineering, and they shouldn’t have to. They expect their mobile network to work where and when they need it, whether that's inside a city building or hundreds of kilometres from the capital city.

“Australia presents a unique engineering challenge. We have highly concentrated urban environments alongside enormous distances between communities, which means we need to continually find smarter ways to use the spectrum available to us.

“Low-band spectrum is critical because it can travel further and penetrate deeper. Getting more performance from the 900MHz spectrum we already have gives us another way to improve the experience in the places where distance, buildings and geography make connectivity harder to deliver.”

Henrique Vale, Vice President of Mobile Infrastructure for Asia Pacific at Nokia, said:

“The next phase of 5G will be shaped not only by new spectrum, but by finding smarter ways to unlock the full potential of the spectrum operators already have. Together with Optus, Nokia has achieved a significant low-band 5G breakthrough that could help deliver stronger connectivity deep inside buildings and across the vast distances of regional Australia.”

The demonstration reflects Optus’ continued focus on making its existing spectrum work harder, using network innovation to improve the experience for customers wherever connectivity is hardest to deliver.