By Juan Pedro Tomás
Nokia announced it has been selected by Australian broadband operator nbn to supply 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) mmWave customer premises equipment (CPE) for the latter’s fixed wireless network upgrade.
In a release, the Finnish vendor noted that this upgrade program will enable nbn to deliver faster speeds to thousands of homes and businesses across semi-rural, regional and remote Australia.
nbn’s existing FWA network currently covers almost 650,000 premises across Australia. The upgrade program will extend nbn’s existing fixed wireless footprint by up to 50 per cent, enabling 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-Standalone (NSA) mode.
Nokia also said its mmWave solution introduces an innovative antenna design that can leverage mmWave to a range of up to 10km to meet nbn´s throughput and capacity requirements. 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 2.5 Gbps Power over Ethernet connection.
Executive general manager, fixed wireless and satellite at nbn Jason Ashton said: ‘We are facing a step-change in demand for broadband in rural and regional areas, with an estimated 300 per cent increase in demand for data on our fixed wireless network over the next ten years. Nokia’s 5G mmWave solution allows nbn to better utilize 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.
