Telstra reveals Samsung, LG and Oppo as exclusive 5G smartphone partnerships

Telstra has unveiled some of the smartphone vendors it sealed an exclusive partnership to be the first to bring its 5G smartphones to Australian customers.

The publicly-listed telecommunications provider will be the first to offer the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, LG V50 ThinQ and Oppo’s 5G handset.

The announcement was made during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and follows Telstra’s announcement of 10 January over its exclusive 5G deals with some of the “world’s biggest brands” - revealed during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Telstra customers who purchase a Samsung S10+ through Telstra will be able to upgrade to the 5G-capable Galaxy S10 5G at no extra cost when it is released.

"Telstra is 5G-ready now,” said Andrew Penn, CEO at Telstra. “When we began rolling out 5G technology across Australia back in August, we also started working closely with the major mobile brands and leading manufacturers of 5G handsets.

“This was so Telstra customers would not only be the first to access to 5G smartphones but also have a variety of products to choose from.”

In December, Telstra said it had three base stations ready for its 5G services, two in Sydney and one in Melbourne. It has also switched on 5G technology across selected areas of Canberra, Brisbane Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Launceston, the Gold Coast and Toowoomba.

"There are two key components to bringing 5G to life - you need the network technology and you need compatible devices. Our network has been ready for some time, and we're now even closer to having 5G- compatible devices available for our customers,” Penn said.

"Traffic on our mobile network has continued to soar by around 40 per cent year-on-year, which is why we are focused on delivering a superior 5G mobile service to our customers first and foremost, and in high demand areas.”

This was after the company invested $386 million for 143 lots of 3.6 GHz band, giving it 60 MHz of 5G spectrum in Australia's major cities and between 50-80 MHz of contiguous 5G spectrum in regional areas.

In late November, the telco also claimed to have achieved Australia's first live 5G connection using a commercial 5G chipset on its mobile network, which was possible using a form factor device working with two of the telco's network partners Ericsson and Qualcomm on the Gold Coast, in Queensland.