Telstra continued its march towards a commercial 5G launch in 2019, switching on its first compatible cell sites in Gold Coast to enable testing of pre-commercial devices.

The operator said it aims to deploy more than 200 5G-compatible sites across Australia by the year-end. In a statement, CEO Andrew Penn said the additional rollouts will target the country’s capital cities, regional centres “and other high demand areas”, to enable devices to be assessed under real-world conditions.

Penn added the new sites will also expand testing of a previously announced connected car, which he noted was one of the first products delivered by a 5G Innovation Centre Telstra opened in Gold Coast in February.

The facility had also delivered “the world’s first precinct of 5G-enabled Wi-Fi hotspots”, the executive said.

Telstra’s 5G rollout is supported by a AUD5 billion ($3.61 billion) investment in mobile networks over three years to end-June 2019.