EFTM can reveal that Boost Mobile is testing 5G coverage for its customers ahead of a likely launch in the months ahead.
Long time reader Ash noticed his iPhone 12 showing 5G coverage but as a Boost customer that’s something he’s not used to.
Telstra, Optus and Vodafone customers will be familiar with the “oooh I’ve got 5G” feeling when the networks switch on in your area, but for customers of smaller second tier telcos that’s not a feeling they’ve known.
It’s not known when Boost is planning to launch their 5G, but we’re confident this is just the early stages of testing – confident because if it was launched this weekend, outspoken Founder Peter Adderton would have had a 5G logo all over the company’s two Supercars at the opening round of the 2022 Supercar series in Sydney this weekend.
Instead, Adderton was forced to watch his rival Optus logo swoop past an ailing Will Brown in the Boost car to give Chaz Mostert a podium in last nights opening race.
Adderton’s views on 5G were pretty clear when we asked him two years ago –“we will offer 5G to our customers when it makes a difference in the lives of our customers”
“Today it doesn’t make a difference in the lives of our customers, and it’s not worth the premium cost for those handsets”
So what’s changed?Likely the coverage – in April 2020 he described 5G as having “spotty coverage“.Anyone on Telstra, Optus and Vodafone know that’s changed radically in just two years.
Also, Adderton has since signed a 10 year deal to stay on the Telstra network, and you can bet switching to 5G was part of that negotiation, as was the pending move into mobile home broadband – also likely to be a 5G play.
Bottom line, 5G is coming to Boost Mobile customers – and while we don’t have any official word on when – you’ll read it here when we do.