Australian mobile network operator (MNO) Telstra has confirmed the first consumer devices that will be able to connect to its 5G Standalone (SA) infrastructure. As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, as far back as May 2020 Telstra had confirmed its mobile network had end-to-end enabled for 5G SA, while it initially suggested such devices could become available ‘from late 2020’. It is only now, however, that the MNO has revealed that customers who purchase one of its Samsung Galaxy S22, S22+ or S22 Ultra smartphones will see an Android 13 firmware to those devices which enables support for 5G SA. According to the cellco, ‘once this is applied, users with compatible devices will continue to operate seamlessly on the standalone network in the background’.

Telstra has said it expects the 5G SA network to provide ‘new network experiences using a range of new features and services to support not only consumer services, but also new and emerging enterprise and industrial digitisation use cases’.