Telstra has turned on its 5G-enabled service in a street at the Gold Coast, as the State prepares to open the Commonwealth Games, which have their opening ceremony tomorrow.

While Telstra can’t officially be at the Games – Optus is the official Games telecoms operator and will provide a system for broadcasting events, as well as voice and data services – the Big T says it is using its recently opened 5G Innovation Centre on the Gold Coast to power a series of Wi-Fi hot spots in Southport, near the games venue.

The 5G hotspots will be free to access with a download limit of 10GB per day per device

Said Telstra networks chief Mike Wright: “We will have multiple hotspots around the test centre and down the street – anybody can get access to them – and the whole idea is that if you have multiple people connected to each hotspot we can start to generate the type of load that 5G can handle.”