Optus goes with Nokia for NB-IoT management

Optus announced on Thursday it has chosen to go with Nokia's management platform for its narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) segment.

The sorts of industries targeted by the deal will be mining, utilities, and transportation.

"Anticipated industry applications include cost-effective waste management, supply chain optimisation, logistics management, and scene analytics for improved safety and security," the pair said in a statement.

Nokia and Optus previously teamed up to create the latter's 5G network, although Ericsson is also used by the telco as well.

Optus currently has over 900 5G sites around Australia, and over 420,000 households on its 5G fixed-wireless service.

Also on Thursday, Telstra and Ericsson announced they successfully reached a peak download speed of 4.2Gbps using 800Mhz of 5G millimetre wave spectrum.

"This result was achieved on our commercial network at the Telstra 5G Innovation Centre in Queensland using a mobile test platform, an Ericsson radio system base-station, Ericsson's network software, and Ericsson's core network," Telstra group executive of networks and IT Nikos Katinakis said.

"The tests combined eight 100MHz channels using 2×2 MIMO and 64QAM technologies."

Meanwhile, Vodafone announced on Thursday that it is has a new set of unlimited data plans, where users pay for the speed they will have once they eat up their data allowance.

The telco currently has five plans using this structure, starting out with a 10GB quota and 2Mbps speeds thereafter that costs AU$40 a month; while 30GB and 2Mbps speeds thereafter will set consumers back AU$45 a month; to have a 60GB quota with 10Mbps speeds thereafter will cost AU$55; and for an extra AU$10 each month, the quota is increased to 100GB; while the AU$120 ultra plan is a 150GB quota with 25Mbps speeds thereafter.

Data used within the quota is not limited by speeds.

Related Coverage