5G Home Internet explained | What you need to know

[Optus]

As we continue our effort to deliver 5G Home Internet to more and more Aussie households; the team on Yes Crowd thought it’d be a good idea to compile a list of some of your most commonly asked questions.

From service availability, sign up, technical information and modem setup tips ; we have you covered.

Select a topic to find out more:

• How to check 5G coverage

• Optus 5G Home Internet availability & network information
  
  
• Signing up for 5G Home Internet
  
  
• Getting started and modem setup
  
  
• Network feature availability
  
  

Check out our dedicated 5G Home Internet support page for even more information.

[matt8]

I think the main thing you should be telling people is that it doesn’t work.

Even your telephone tech people say it’s no good unless you have the ability ti place the modem DIRECTLY in view of a tower. If you can’t see an Optus tower from standing next to your modem, it simply won’t work.

I’m one of three people to sign up since xmas. All of us have since given up on it. One is less than 100m from his nearest tower, yet due to the configuration of his house can’t actually see it.

Optus say we should average 264mps, and guarantee 50. During the day I would occasionally reach 50, but at night about 2, sometimes nothing.

And phoning Optus to get some info or tech support was like pulling teeth. I won’t go into the details, but some of the info contradicted what was said by other techs. And they kept blaming the SIM cards; they sent me a second one, but one friend got a third one, but of course it made no difference. One tech said I should try to set the modem up outside!

I sincerely hope no one joins this network, at least until it is fixed. It’s a dog.

[G-F]

Sadly - almost the same experience, with a few minor diffs. Generalising here, but in 6 or 7 touches with support, the lack of product knowledge alone was breathtaking. When I asked if it would work on another network he said "but it has no SIM Card........ It does actually." Is it locked to Optus? I asked, one says yes, one says no. Answer is probably yes because my Telstra SIM won't connect to their 4G, and there does not appear to be access to change the config anyway. (If any one knows....?) 

"Please take the unit outside and see if it works there". Seriously? Should I mount it on the roof perhaps?

It fails over to the LTE network if you can't get it to talk 5G (The LTE modem has good specs and works OK - when the Optus 4G/LTE system works, which in our area - used to, but now that's under repair.)

Overall - it's been so bad with Optus I've tried 2 of these units - sent them back and wash my hands of Optus.

It's a cheap service that offers a lot. Buy cheap, get cheap.

[hujik]

5G is the next generation of mobile broadband that will eventually replace, or at least augment, your 4G LTE connection. With 5G, you'll see exponentially faster download and upload speeds. Latency, or the time it takes devices to communicate with wireless networks, will also drastically decrease.

Vanilla 5G will have speeds that are only slightly faster than current 4G networks. The main benefit will be a reduction of lag known as latency. For example, when you do a web search on your phone, the results usually won't load immediately; the lag can often last hundreds of milliseconds... MySchoolBucks Login

[WillowBEE]

What a shocking experience this has been trying to get access to 5G broadband wireless to WFH during this time. Delivery of modem went well but everythign else has been a debacle.

5G connection not working - 4G not working either

Need to ask for support through App - App doesn't work or won't connect.

No information, no follow up - nothing. It's been 3 weeks and I have been patient due to everything that is going on.

I use a different provider for mobile and NBN and thought I would try OPTUS for their 5G wireless broadband. Hmmm.....

[Consumer]

The issue for me has been the Optus people lying. They seemed to be coached never to say “sorry I don’t know but I’ll find out”. Instead they make stuff up. Extremely poor product and worse service. All customers should demand a free service until the 50mbps “guarantee” is met.

[SuperTechSteve]

Hi,

I've had the 5G home internet since Feb 1 and it has been great, support has been good.

I was getting 50mbps to 160mbps download and 25 to 50 mbps upload. Great!

I get Green LED and 5G lit up, grey LED pointing to my closest tower.

2.5 week ago (15th April) my upload speed has dropped to 2mbps to 4.5mbps! Never goes above 4.5, even at 2am! Download is around 50mbps but does go higher at times.

This is worse than NBN.

Support has sent new SIM card, exactly the same upload bandwidth.

Support say it is congestion, went into a store, they say it is congestion and it is over subscribed?

@Optus I can not believe it would be under 5mbps consistently as not everyone would be uploading at the same time.

@Optus Have you capped all upload bandwidth? It was all ok until 2.5 wks ago?

This is making uploading very hard and slow and sometimes just times out?

Answers would be nice and a time frame of when things will improve?

Thanks
Stephen

[WillowBEE]

At least yours worked at some stage Stephen. Mine hasn't worked from Day 1.

[Ray_YC]

Hi WillowBEE,

Please see our My Optus app troubleshooting tips thread so you can reach out to our Support team if still needed. 

If for some reason you’re still unable to, if you have a social media account, please then send a PM to Optus on Facebookor a DM on Twitter  with the details for further assistance mentioning you’re unable to use the My Optus app.

[WillowBEE]

Ray, I have done everything but the APP isn't working for me at all - no service is coming up in the APP. I go into My Optus account and the order (even though it was ordered on the 16th of March and the hardware was delivered in about a week) is still sitting there with the Service Activation still 'in progress'. The order# 143091765A is not activated and has been sitting useless for over 6 weeks.

Tried call Optus support as per instructions from my local Optus store (prior to them shutting down) and was on hold for 1 and half hours and had to hang up.

This is severely affecting the ability to WFH for two essential workers and a studnet working from home.

Please provide some urgent assistance.

Cheers Stuart