Mobile World Congress, Shanghai: The Road to 5G and the Implications for the nbn

Good morning everyone, it is great to be here in Shanghai at one of the world’s leading events for the mobile industry.

Firstly, allow me to offer apologies on behalf of Bill Morrow, CEO of NBN who was scheduled to be delivering this presentation but is unable to be here because of a family loss.

It is an honour to step in to represent Mr Morrow.  My name is Paul Fletcher, and I am Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications in the Australian Government – which is the sole shareholder in the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The NBN is an ambitious project to deliver high speed broadband services to every home in Australia using a combination of a fixed access network in the cities and major towns, fixed wireless in less densely populated areas and satellite in remote areas.

The network is due to be completed by 2020, and we have committed that each user will receive a minimum peak speed of 25Mbps.

NBN is a wholesale only operator that sells to retail service providers such as Telstra and Optus - which in turn offer services to end-users.

So what does a predominantly fixed-broadband operator have to say which is relevant to Mobile World Congress Asia?

The answer is that NBN is using mobile technology in the form of TD-LTE to deliver a fixed-broadband like service in many areas of regional and remote Australia, where it would be prohibitively expensive to roll out a fixed network.

The NBN fixed-wireless network currently covers 270,000 premises. It will ultimately cover around 600,000 premises. Today it has almost 50,000 active end-users and is now adding 1,000 end-users per week.

Many of these subscribers previously had to use expensive 3G or 4G mobile broadband services – and some of them simply could not access any form of satisfactory broadband.

Now, with the NBN fixed-wireless services these homes are currently able to buy a 25Mbps/5Mbps plan with data allowance of 250GB for less than A$70/month – that’s a better service than most non-NBN city dwellers can get.

NBN fixed-wireless end-users are currently using around 70GB/month of data – a level of data usage that would simply not be possible on a regular mobile network.

What’s more, NBN is currently running a trial of a 50Mbps/20Mbps on the fixed wireless services network and will launch the service commercially in the fourth quarter.

How does the NBN fixed wireless service compare to other such products around the world? 

A new research report from Ovum – commissioned by Ericsson, NBN’s technology partner on the fixed-wireless network – shows that NBN’s fixed-wireless service is a world leader in terms of speeds, data allowances and pricing.

The report benchmarked NBN fixed-wireless against similar products around the world and found that it was a genuine market leader across all categories. A stand out finding is that NBN’s wholesale pricing is allowing the retail service providers to offer their customers the lowest pricing per GB per month in the world.

As the report notes, the NBN fixed-wireless service is opening up a whole range of broadband applications to regional Australians that were previously simply not possible.

The evidence from our customers in regional and remote Australia is that the NBN fixed wireless service is making a tangible difference – economically and socially.

For example, since being connected to the fixed-wireless service Noel Penfold from Murray Darling Fisheries in NSW has been able to find new export markets for his product in China and has doubled his exports.

Noel says that his NBN connection is “now an essential service like electricity and water”.

NBN’s market research shows very positive signs from fixed wireless end users.

Of course, a key topic for this Mobile World Congress is the Road to 5G. For NBN, 5G will be very important.

On the fixed-broadband side of the network, NBN is already offering 1Gbps over GPON and has the ability to offer Gigabit speeds over Docsis 3.1 and G.Fast.

So it will be crucial to demonstrate that the fixed wireless network, similarly, has a pathway to higher speeds – so that people in regional and remote Australia can enjoy continuing service improvements just like city residents.

That is the pathway that 5G offers.

Right now fixed-wireless can deliver 50Mbps on the NBN – and it could go marginally higher – but substantial speed increases will only really be possible with the arrival of 5G.

Improvements in speed, of course, are by no means the only benefit we expect from 5G. 5G will bring greater capacity to the fixed-wireless network which will enable even higher data usage; it also offers lower latency which will improve quality service on some applications.   

So, although it is still some way off 5G can clearly help NBN deliver even better services to regional Australians – and stay as a world leader in delivering fixed-wireless services.

What NBN is doing in regional Australia would not be possible without LTE, a technology originally developed to meet the needs of mobile customers.

NBN is a fixed network, not a mobile network – but it is showing the value of using technologies originally developed for mobile to provide a last-mile replacement in areas where low population density or other factors make it prohibitively expensive to build a fixed-line broadband network.