What is mmWave 5G?

In Australia, 5G is already impressive for mobile users seeking faster download and upload speeds, as well as lower latency. But 5G’s impressive performance is only the tip of the iceberg. That’s right, Australia’s 5G networks have the potential to be even faster via mmWave technology. There are some sizeable catches, but it’s possible to get a taste of mmWave 5G’s impressive cellular tech today.

Before we delve into that, check out today’s most popular prepaid and SIM-only 5G mobile plans from our comparison engine.

The simple explanation is that mmWave (short for “millimetre wave”) is a high-frequency, short-range technology that has the potential to make 5G mobile speeds a whole lot faster. In slightly more elongated terms, mmWave is one of several network technologies used to make 5G connectivity possible. And it already exists in Australia. Kinda.

Before we get to the laundry list of disclaimers, let’s talk about the good stuff. Because mmWave operates at a higher frequency than other 5G technologies—for example, 26GHz vs the 3.6GHz for most of Telstra’s 5G network—it boosts everything. Download speeds. Upload speeds. Better (lower) latency. It achieves this by providing more bandwidth (or ‘capacity’)—aka, the max amount of data transmitted over a network, with more being better—which leads to the oft-made comparison of, say, converting a one-lane highway for older, slower cellular technologies to the multi-lane highway for mmWave 5G.

Let’s start with current 5G speeds. In best-case real-world conditions, you can hit 1Gbps download speeds with 5G. More realistically, Opensignal reports that the fastest average download speeds are around 200Mbps on the Optus 5G network, with average upload speeds at their fastest on the Vodafone network at just shy of 16Mbps. In fairness, those noticeably slower-than-max speeds are more than enough for most mobile use cases.

Local trials for mmWave 5G hit an impressive 3Gbps download speeds. For context, that’s three times faster than best-case conditions for 5G mobile today, plus three times faster than the current top-speed NBN plan (NBN 1000). But it gets faster. Telstra achieved 4.2Gbps speeds with the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro (ZTE MU500) during tests in September 2020.

It’s not just for mobile devices, either. Samsung and NBN Co teamed up to test a 5G mmWave upgrade for best Fixed Wireless services. They hit impressive 1.75Gbps download speeds and 61.5Mbps upload speeds at a 10km range.

As for latency, forget about the 20–30ms latency of current best-case mobile conditions: mmWave 5G latency can get as low as 1ms, which puts the admittedly impressive 8ms from Exetel’s low NBN latency to shame. In fairness, latency below 50ms is great and it’s diminishing returns below 20ms in terms of being able to notice a real-world impact for latency-sensitive tasks, like video conferencing, voice calls and online gaming.

Unfortunately, there are some very big caveats when it comes to mmWave 5G. From a technical standpoint, mmWave has a shorter range than other 5G technologies. From a practical perspective, mmWave 5G coverage is very limited in Australia, even though Telstra, Optus and Vodafone all offer mmWave in select parts of their mobile networks. Those parts of the network with mmWave coverage are in limited spots in capital city CBDs.

Finding those mmWave 5G coverage spots is tricky. Optus makes it a bit easier with the telco’s 5G coverage map. Zoom in on a capital city CBD (or other high-density areas) and look for the pink ‘5G Max Outdoors’ colours to find mmWave coverage. The reason outdoors is specifically mentioned is because mmWave doesn’t do as good as job of penetrating buildings as other 5G technologies. For other coverage maps, it’s a bit trickier. I couldn’t find any visual or noted indication of mmWave 5G coverage on the Telstra coverage map, and Vodafone doesn’t have a coverage map to check.

More importantly (or perhaps, more depressingly), the list of compatible devices is incredibly short. Telstra, for instance, lists three officially compatible devices: the Google Pixel 6 Pro, Google Pixel 7 Pro and the Telstra 5G Wi-Fi Pro mobile broadband device. Digging a little deeper, the Google Pixel 8 Pro is also mmWave 5G compatible, as is the Pixel 9 Pro Fold (but not the Pixel 9 Pro or Pro XL; go figure).

According to our WhistleOut sister site, the Netgear Nighthawk M6 Pro is also an mmWave 5G-compatible device in Australia. There are other devices globally that support mmWave, but manufacturers typically don’t bring those versions to Australia, unfortunately.