Telus CEO Darren Entwistle revealed during the company’s Q2 2018 investors call that the carrier has achieved download speeds of 28Gbps in 5G trials.
Entwistle delivered these remarks in regards to a question about potential increases in capital spending as a result of Telus’s eventual 5G network deployment.
However, Entwistle explained that due to 5G’s reliance on existing 4G networks, Telus hasn’t actually witnessed a significant increase in capital intensity.
“We’ll be using 5G to compliment our fibre build where we can look at it as an alternative access technology to improve the economics of broadband connectivity with certain areas that we don’t feel it’s prudent to address through our pure fibre,” said Entwistle.
Entwistle added that the company is building 5G small cells sites “concurrently with the fibre build.”
As such, Entwistle said he expects that 5G equipment costs will be offset overtime due to the company’s fibre build.
Telus is currently working with Chinese telecom hardware manufacturer Huawei to progress towards an eventual 5G network launch.
The two companies launched a 5G wireless-to-the-home trial in February 2018.
Later that month, Huawei debuted the world’s first commercial 5G modem.
Huawei’s Balong 5G01 modem is able to deliver peak speeds of up to 2Gbps, and supports both 4G and 5G networks.
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