Australia’s NBNCo has selected Nokia’s 5G mmWave Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for a large-scale deployment reaching rural and suburban customers.
FWA currently covers almost 650,000 premises across Australia. This rollout will enable approximately 120,000 former satellite-only eligible premises access to fixed wireless services for the first time.
The 5G mmWave upgrade utilizes the 28 GHz band to be operated in Non-Stand Alone (NSA) mode along with cmWave spectrum and will help enable faster speeds on the network, including the launch of two new wholesale high-speed tiers – 100 Mbps and 250 Mbps.
Nokia’s mmWave solution introduces a high gain antenna design that can leverage mmWave to a range of up to 10km. The CPE comprises an outdoor unit installed on the roof of the premise and an indoor unit providing user interfaces for the customer, connecting to the outdoor receiver with a 2.5Gbps Power over Ethernet connection.
The devices will be used as part of nbn’s Fixed Wireless and Satellite Upgrade Program, a $750 million investment in the nbn Fixed Wireless network, made up of $480 million from the Australian Government supported by an additional $270 million from nbn.
“Using mmWave over long distances has been very challenging due to high signal attenuation. Nokia’s high gain Long Reach technology is an important innovation as it compensates for this attenuation, and minimises possible satellite interference, offering a balance of throughput and TCO,” said Shiv Putcha, Founder and Principal Analyst, Mandala Insights. “The collaboration with nbn is an important step to connecting the next billion users, who represent a significant opportunity for service providers in Australia and around the world.
Jason Ashton, Executive General Manager, Fixed Wireless and Satellite at nbn said: ‘We are facing a step-change in demand for broadband in rural and regional areas, with an estimated 300% increase in demand for data on our fixed wireless network over the next ten years. Nokia’s 5G mmWave solution allows nbn to better utilise both our sub6GHz and 5G mmWave spectrum allocations to vastly extend the range, speed and capacity of our existing fixed wireless network and improve the end user’s experience.”
