Australian telecommunications company Telstra announced this week that it has achieved a 5G uplink speed of 350 Mbps over 5G Standalone (SA) using sub-6 GHz frequencies in a live commercial network in partnership with Ericsson and Qualcomm. Telstra claims this as a new global record for 5G uplink speed, which is 100 times faster than 3G uplink speed.
Also Read: Telstra and Eutelsat OneWeb Launch Largest Rollout of LEO Backhaul in Australia
5G Uplink Speed
Telstra said this achievement will enable its customers to be able to enjoy faster and more reliable data uploads on their 5G Standalone (SA) devices, thereby enhancing their user experience.
Telstra noted that the new 5G Standalone uplink capability combines its mid-band spectrum holdings to create a 140 MHz channel for sending data from the device to the network. Additionally, this is complemented by a 240 MHz channel for receiving data from the 5G SA network, delivering up to 3.6 Gbps in the downlink and an uplink speed of up to 340 Mbps.
Enhanced User Experience
Telstra claims that the uplink speeds achieved are the fastest in the world using spectrum under 6 GHz. The tests were conducted using a mobile test device equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF system and an existing NetGear Nighthawk M6 Pro Mobile Broadband device in the live commercial network on the Gold Coast.
"The uplink and downlink 5G data channels work together to provide a seamless and almost symmetrical 5G service," Telstra said. "The ability to use low-band frequencies and repurpose our 3G low-band 850 MHz frequency to deliver 5G SA coverage when the 3G network closes on 30 June 2024 has the benefit of providing improved depth of coverage and enhancing the 5G experience for customers."
Also Read: Telstra Announces Five New Intercity Fibre Routes and Pilbara Expansion
Dynamic Network Slicing Implementation
In another announcement, Telstra said it has deployed new Ericsson Dynamic Network Slicing software, which gives the operator a fully automated and monetizable network slicing orchestration capability to deliver slicing services to Australian enterprises.
With this deployment, the two companies have completed the first phase of work to enable slice-based use cases such as Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), broadcasting, automotive connectivity, stadium or precinct services, and more on Telstra's 5G network.
The companies have finalized the build of the initial wireless capabilities for this project. The two main features of this phase are the orchestration of Telstra's Radio Access Network (RAN) Rate Controlled Scheduling (RCS) and the creation of the ability to automate the discovery of the entire Telstra 5G RAN topology.
Over the course of 2024, the partners will finalize the next phase of this work – the development and deployment of more advanced, open architecture-supported features.
