Ensuring the safety of new mobile technologies is our top priority. We recently conducted some 6GHz trials under extreme data loads in Anglesea, Victoria to prove it.
Footage: A man in a blue Telstra-branded cap and polo shirt stands outdoors in front of a Telstra tower on a road surrounded by native Australian trees with a Telstra car in the background. We see the 'Anglesea' sign and footage of a beach. He is holding a testing instument and speaking directly to camera.
Mike's voiceover: Hi, it's Mike from Telstra. We're in Anglesea on the Great Ocean Road in southern Australia. It's a beautiful part of the country with lots of surf beaches, river inlets and a holiday destination for lots of people.
Footage: We cut away to cell tower which shows the antenna installed by Ericsson then Telstra team members standing in front of a lake, holding green MediaTek devices.
Mike's voiceover: Now, we're at the site that's got the first 6 gigahertz antenna and it's a trial site for Telstra in Australia - with our partners, Ericsson. They've installed an antenna on the tower, you can see behind us. And we've got devices from our Media Tek partners.
Footage: We cut to a montage of Mike and another Telstra team member conducting speed tests on the device in the tower's surrounding areas.
Mike's voiceover: It's very important we test the safety of this technology, so that's what we're doing here today.
We've got the MediaTek devices, we run a speed test on the device and that attracts a signal to the instrument that we're using, which is a Signal Shark from Nada. This goes from 200 megahertz to 800 gigahertz, so it's perfect for the upper 6 band. When we've done our testing - we've tested close to the tower and at the nearby homes down the street - the radio frequency safety limit is a level of 10 watts per metre squared. So imagine one square metre - the limit is 10. We have been measuring levels of around 5 to 20 milliwatts, so well below the public safety limit. And we've been at the tower and around the houses close to the tower, up and down the street.
Footage: We cut to a montage of Mike and another Telstra team member conducting various speed tests on the devices near the tower. We also see a another shot of the technology on the tower.
Mike's voiceover: So it's really important that with these trials, we get in early, that we understand the technology and that we do the safety evaluations so we can be part of the technology as it goes forward. What we verified today is that the technology is well below the public safety limit. That matches our predictions and you can also see there's lots of other technology on the tower.
Footage: Close up of the Nada testing device screen showing the levels of exposure and frequency.
Mike's voiceover:When we looked at all the technologies combined - the 4G and 5G - all the radio frequency strengths were more than 100 times below the public safety limit. And that's including the new 6 gigahertz antenna.
So, we'll continue testing as the technology evolves but we wanted to share that information with you today. And that's an update from Anglesea!
End frame: Telstra logo.
Terminology to help you better understand this video and article:
Before the trials, we ran computational models to confirm our design’s safety, followed by live testing under extreme data loads to validate our 6GHz EME safety findings.
The upper 6GHz band is new and most spectrum analysers with EME assessment capabilities stop at 6GHz. This is where the new Signal Shark from Narda, with its isotropic probe extending to 8GHz, comes in handy - because it's perfect for our needs!
We used MediaTek devices connected to a 6GHz transmitter, then generated a high traffic load through the speed test application in the nearby area, including homes and streets close to the tower. During the downlink of the speed test, we measured the radio frequency spectrum with a probe in the path to the tower to read the power density in Watts per square metre. We then compared these readings to what we predicted, and the public safety limits set by ARPANSA.
Given that we were the only ones using the 6GHz band, we had all the available capacity, ensuring a high network load. During the safety tests, we applied the protocols in the latest International IEC base station testing standards and we will continue to share our results with the IEC standards experts.
Under very high data loads, the highest environmental EME levels ranged from 500 to 2,000 times below the public safety limit. This is extremely low and similar to existing 5G EME levels when tested under high load.
In ‘normal' use with streaming applications like YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and email, the EME levels were so low, they were hard to measure. This is because the 6GHz network is so efficient and delivers connections very quickly, making the actual EME almost undetectable.
The public safety limit is 10 Watts per square metre at 6GHz. Imagine 1 square metre - the safety limit is 10 Watts over that area. As a comparsion, the EME from the sun is about 1,000 Watts over 1 square metre.
At 6GHz, we measured 0.005 to 0.02 Watts per square metre under high load, so well below 10 Watts per square metre! The good news? 6GHz produces very low EME and is well below the safety limits even under high data loads. We wanted to share these results as part of our ongoing research program, as we strive to bring Australians the best mobile technology in the future.
We'll continue our testing as this new technology evolves on the exciting evolution towards 6G!
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