Telstra, the Australian telecommunications company, has announced it will launch a ground-breaking 5G slicing product later this year. Powered by a cutting-edge proof-of-value mobility analytics engine, this innovative solution allows the creation of multiple virtual networks with diverse performance characteristics on an equivalent physical network. This paves the way for customised network solutions to accommodate varying customer requirements.
In a forward-looking statement, Shailin Sehgal, Telstra Executive Network Applications and Cloud, said, "this solves a critical piece in the puzzle to deploying 5G slicing to enterprise customers across different industries, ensuring transparency and accountability around specific speeds and uptime as part of the network slice." This novel development ensures that customers receive a committed performance level, and are billed according to what they receive, ensuring fairness and transparency in service delivery.
Mr. Sehgal also touched on the flexibility that the new technology provides, explaining that the firm's 5G slicing product utilises slice templates to adapt a slice to a customer's use case and specified performance requirements. "The customisation we can layer on our 5G slice technology makes it especially useful for a wide variety of use cases, from performance for transport networks or construction sites, to public safety technology such as video surveillance", said Mr Sehgal.
Indeed, Telstra's ground-breaking 5G slicing solution has already been deployed in a trial phase at Hindmarsh, an Australian company that specialises in construction, real estate development, retirement services, and capital management. The firm's IT Manager, Mark Crameri, extolled the virtues of the new service. "Telstra’s new 5G fixed wireless network slicing link was deployed at one of our heaviest use sites with over 30 staff, each with laptops and phones, along with tablets and video conferencing equipment. To date the reliability of the new link has been tremendous, ensuring incredibly fast access to our business-critical systems in addition to speedy internet access and video conferencing capabilities, enhancing productivity on-site," he said.
In their strive for enhanced network performance and favourable configuration, Telstra has sought collaboration with Casa Systems and their Realtime Fastlane Accelerator technology. "With our dynamic network slicing capabilities, mobile operators can deliver an enhanced experience for customers by offering tailored service plans to meet the customer’s individual requirements," shared Steve Collins, SVP of Access Devices, Casa Systems.
Besides collaborating with Casa Systems, Telstra also teamed up with Ericsson. The teams focused on a solution to operationalise network slicing, designing experiences, and delivering a service that aligns with the needs of specific customer use cases. "This groundbreaking service offering, based on proof-of-value, is a great example of how Telstra has combined the underlying technology provided by Ericsson for observability and service assurance with their creativity to give the best offering available to customers," said Emilio Romeo, Ericsson’s Head of Australia & New Zealand.
Telstra's innovative 5G slicing approach is set to be demonstrated in the Ericsson Hall at the Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona from 26 February to 29 February 2024.