Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking Check out an example of one of the ads below. Apparently so. According to Vodafone, this claim to having the number-one global 5G network amounts to having a 5G presence in 15 countries around the world, including the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and, of course, Australia. The video ad above goes on to say that the Vodafone 5G network is “in Australia, [Vodafone’s] best network yet”, which doesn’t speak to how it compares with the Telstra 5G network and Optus 5G network. Towards the end of the ad, Vodafone notes that its 5G network is “rolling out in selected areas of major [Australian] cities.” Because Vodafone’s 5G country count doesn’t mean a whole lot to Australia, and because there’s some key stuff to dig into from the rest of the ad, let’s look at how it fares in terms of meaningful 5G metrics. While having a 5G network that reaches 1 million people is no small thing, the Vodafone 5G network is potentially closer to the reach of the current Optus 5G network but pales in comparison to the reach of the Telstra 5G network.
Vodafone: selected areas of 1,000 suburbs of populous cities (1 million Vodafone customers) Optus: 830,000 households (approximately 2.09 million people based on the OECD estimate of 2.53 average household size) Telstra: 75% of the Australian population (approximately 19.3 million people based on ABS population stats from 30 June 2021)
For comparison, check out these three 5G maps below. First up is the Telstra 5G map, with a view of 5G coverage over Sydney. Still, the bottom line is if you’re after 5G coverage in Australia, your best bet is the Telstra 5G network. Use the interactive map above to find out which 5G network (or networks) is available in your area. Select either Telstra, Optus or Vodafone from the drop-down menu, then ensure that only 5G is ticked. Position the interactive map view over your area and look out for the dark purple colour to indicate 5G coverage. Our friends at WhistleOut ran 5G tests across the respective networks in Sydney during certain months of 2021 and discovered that while Telstra and Optus battled for the top spot, Vodafone was noticeably behind. Here’s how the three 5G networks compared in terms of average download speeds in June 2021 (bigger numbers are better):
Telstra download speed: 509Mbps Optus download speed: 484Mbps (~5% slower than Telstra) Vodafone download speed: 241Mbps (~52% slower than Telstra; ~50% slower than Optus)
And here’s how they looked in terms of average upload speeds (bigger numbers are better):
Optus download speed: 62Mbps Telstra download speed: 56Mbps (~9% slower than Optus) Vodafone download speed: 21Mbps (~66% slower than Optus; ~62% slower than Telstra)
Finally, here’s the results for average 5G latency (lower numbers are better):
Telstra download speed: 15ms Optus download speed: 15ms (same as Telstra) Vodafone download speed: 19ms (~21% slower than Telstra and Optus)
From the results above, it’s clear that Telstra has the number-one 5G network in Australia for speed (not to mention coverage). That said, you might consider Optus or Telstra if you have 5G coverage from their respective networks and want a cheaper 5G plan If you’re in the market for a 5G mobile plan, check out the popular picks from our comparison engine below:
