Telstra is king in 5G coverage and performance, according to new benchmarking studies from umlaut.

In a survey of nine cities – including the state capitals plus Canberra, Toowoomba, and the Gold Coast – the benchmarking service found Telstra provided higher availability (the amount of time in 5G along the 5000km of road surveyed) than Optus and Vodafone, as well as higher average and peak download throughputs.

According to Sri Amirthalingam, Commercial Engineering Executive – Telstra, the results highlight the telco’s “ongoing leadership” on 5G.

“Using a Samsung S20+ 5G in this most recent audit, umlaut showed that in eight of the nine locations tested, our average and maximum 5G network throughput was higher than other carriers including in Sydney and Melbourne – meaning that as tested, our average and maximum 5G speeds are higher than our competitors across the board in the vast majority of locations included.

“In addition to these drive survey results for the nine cities, umlaut also included results on 5G coverage and performance for all of Australia using their own app-based crowd-sourced data, with these results reinforcing our leadership on 5G coverage and speeds as seen in the drive survey results,” said Amirthalingam.

Telstra has 3000 5G sites across the country, and the carrier says it is working to quickly expand its coverage.

“Our 5G coverage now reaches over half of the Australian population. We’re working to grow our 5G footprint further to cover 75 per cent of the Australian population by June this year, and we’re already well on our way to that goal,” said Amirthalingam.

Optus placed a consistent second in the surveys, with Vodafone a distant third.