It’s likely that Telstra may be the only Australian telco to sell 5G phones in the first half of the year.

Telstra Corp Lt. Australia’s largest telecom firm, has apparently rung in the New Year with plans to soon roll-out smartphones compatible with 5G. The company’s chief executive, Andy Penn, revealed at CES 2019 that the company has hit pay dirt with exclusive Australian collaborations with some of the largest smartphone manufacturers across the globe, to offer their 5G handsets in H1 2019.

Telstra’s CEO has not revealed however, which of the vendors the Australian telco has onboard. Sources affirm though, that Apple certainly isn’t a part of the list – leading industry experts to speculate that even if the iPhone is not compatible with 5G, it is not likely to be available until Q2 2019.

Telstra's announcement, as per sources familiar with the knowledge of the matter, comes on the heels of telco rival Optus’s readiness to launch its 5G service in Australia, as early as this month. Optus initially plans to offer fixed-wireless home broadband services, post which the telco would be launching mobile services – somewhere in the second half of the year.

As per a report by CRN, Telstra has, since the last five years, poured in close to $8 billion in its mobile network – inclusive of the $386 million in December to purchase 143 lots of 5G spectrum from the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Apart from refusing to comment on the vendors onboard, Mr. Penn has also refused to reveal the exact time of the 5G phone launch on Telstra’s network. However, he did affirm that Telstra has successfully accomplished its goal of launching 200 5G-capable base stations spanning Australia by the end of 2018.

According to credible reports, Telstra has not yet locked in any pricing range for the 5G access. However, Mr. Penn claimed that the firm may not charge any premium for the access to 5G speeds – similar to how the scenario was when the company introduced access to 4G data speeds.