Extending internet and mobile service to regional areas is an important step, and Optus has just reached an important milestone, switching on their 1,000th upgraded regional 5G site.
The milestone is a partway point in Optus’ plans, having doubled their upgraded regional 5G sites in the past 18 months, with plans to upgrade over 1,500 regional 5G sites before the end of 2028 – and plans to upgrade almost 2,500 sites by 2030.
The upgraded sites offer improved speeds to customers, which can mean download speeds 15 times faster than the 4G tower it was upgraded from, giving Regional and rural customers, businesses and visitors improved streaming speeds, more stable and clear video calls, ability to take payments reliably or just working on the move.
The push to upgrade regional sites is being driven by a trend of people in the city moving to regional Australia, with the latest Regional Movers Index showing this move is outstripping people relocating to cities by 30%.
Anthony Shiner, Chief Customer Officer at Optus, said:
“The demand for mobile connectivity continues to grow as more people choose regional lifestyles and businesses increasingly rely on digital technologies to operate and grow. We’ve accelerated the pace of our regional upgrades to keep up with that demand, nearly doubling the number of upgraded regional 5G sites in the past 18 months. And we’re not stopping there. We’re planning to deliver 1,500 upgraded regional 5G sites by the end of 2028, bringing faster, stronger connectivity to more communities across Australia.”
It’s good news for Optus, who have had ups and downs over the last 12 months after their major outage at the end of last year. Optus also managed to take home the crown from OpenSignal who awarded Optus an award for Australia’s fastest 5G for mobile downloads nationally.
If you’re struggling with your mobile coverage, there’s definitely hope with the government’s Mobile Blackspot program encouraging telcos to upgrade their infrastructure. If you want to see how your local phone tower is doing, you can check your telcos coverage maps.
Daniel has been talking about, learning about and using tech since he was able to toggle switches and push buttons. If it flashes, turns on or off or connects he wants to use it, talk about it and learn more about it. Like this article? Buy me a coffee!
