Turnbull Government to convene 5G working group

12 October 2017

The Turnbull Government today released a 5G directions paper and will convene a working group to drive the deployment of 5G mobile technology in Australia.

While Australians have already shown an insatiable appetite for mobile technology using existing 3G and 4G networks, the significant technological advances offered by 5G will provide new opportunities across a range of sectors.

The Government’s work will support the timely rollout of 5G in Australia to enable the next wave of broad-based industry productivity and to foster the growth of Australia’s digital economy.

The commercial rollout of 5G mobile networks is expected to commence in 2020. 5G will support improved connectivity, significantly faster data speeds, and very low latency. These characteristics will enable 5G to underpin substantial economic and social benefits across the economy.

This directions paper highlights that the Government will support 5G rollout in Australia by:

• making spectrum available in a timely manner,

• actively engaging in international standardisation processes,

• streamlining planning arrangements to allow mobile carriers to deploy infrastructure more quickly and at lower cost,

• and reviewing existing telecommunications regulatory arrangements to ensure they are fit-for-purpose in the 5G era.

5G will be a key enabler for a range of Government priorities, including the Digital Economy Strategy, policy development for autonomous vehicles, and the Smart Cities Plan. To improve alignment across portfolios, the Department of Communications and the Arts will establish a working group that will bring together representatives from across Government and industry.

This working group will provide a platform for an ongoing strategic dialogue on 5G, and will work to ensure that sectoral regulatory frameworks are updated to take advantage of 5G.

The directions paper is available at: www.communications.gov.au/5Gdirectionspaper