Telstra's first 5G customer to explore IOT use cases

Telstra has revealed that the owner of Toowoomba, Queensland’s Pulse Data Centre FKG Group is its first 5G customer, after connecting a commercial 5G device to its network. The Toowoomba-based construction and engineering company will use the first iteration of the HTC 5G Hub mobile broadband device to test connectivity to the network, allowing for future use cases in transport, logistics and agribusiness. Telstra said its 5G network is ready in parts of Toowoomba, but concedes that the user experience benefits of 5G are not expected to become available until the first half of next year. “This launch is a vital first step toward enabling a 5G experience with a customer, bringing together a first generation device with Telstra’s 5G network using the 3Gpp standards for the first time,” Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn said.