Australia-based operator Optus and Finnish vendor Nokia claimed a record aggregate site throughput after hitting download rates of 10Gb/s using 800MHz of mmWave spectrum at a live 5G site in Brisbane.

The vendor stated the demonstration employed its AirScale Radio equipment and showcased the capabilities of mmWave 5G and the benefits of adding it to 4G sites.

Lambo Kanagaratnam, MD of networks at Optus, said the operator had “taken an exciting step towards unlocking the massive potential” of mmWave 5G in delivering services to “consumers, enterprises and industries”.

He noted reaching the 10Gb/s rate per site is a crucial step in Optus’ 5G development and validates the progress made with the technology in conjunction with Nokia.

Nokia head of Oceania Anna Wills said the demo shows the potential of mmWave deployments “at a time when connectivity and capacity are so crucial”.

Australia will auction 2.4GHz of 26GHz spectrum across 27 geographic blocks later this month. The mmWave auction is first time high-band 5G spectrum will be made available in the country.

Optus launched a dual-band 5G network in Sydney on the 2300MHz and 3500MHz bands in early 2020.