Telstra, working with Ericsson and MediaTek, claimed a record peak downlink data rate of 9.4Gb/s on its live commercial standalone (SA) 5G network, with laboratory tests surpassing a 10Gb/s benchmark.

The companies jointly stated consumers with compatible devices in areas where Telstra has the suitable frequencies would experience increased download speeds, albeit not at the level achieved in the tests.

Sri Amirthalingam, Telstra’s executive of wireless network engineering, said the “achievement is more than just a speed record, it improves the network’s capacity, which helps deliver consistency of service irrespective of time or location”.

A live mobile site equipped with Ericsson’s radio equipment running 5G-Advanced software was set up at the operator’s Innovation Centre on the Gold Coast.

Ericsson’s hardware connected through a low-latency cell site router to its packet core gateway along with MediaTek’s chipset technology.

The collaboration combined multiple spectrum layers and advanced connectivity features including New Radio dual connectivity and carrier aggregation.

In August 2024, Telstra deployed Ericsson’s centralised RAN set-up to prepare for the rollout of 5G-Advanced.