Introduction

LTE has quickly gone from a pipedream to an everyday feature in Australia.

The technology has now involved to include LTE-Advance, TD-LTE and carrier aggregation, with trials for LTE-Broadcast and in-flight 4G use also being conducted.

But what exactly is 4G? How do you get it? How is it different between networks? And what is ahead of us? This is techradar's ultimate guide to 4G in Australia.

What is 4G?

Simply put, 4G stands for 4th generation. It's the fourth major technology in mobile telecommunications and delivers faster data speeds than the 3G technologies.

Confusingly, 4G can refer to two different technologies - WiMax and LTE. In Australia though, it's almost exclusively used to refer to LTE, or what's known as Long Term Evolution.

Australia did have a WiMax operator in the form of Vividwireless, right up until the point they were bought out by Optus in early 2012. Optus is now using the spectrum gained through the acquisition to enhance its own LTE network, meaning that WiMax is, for all intends and purposes, obsolete in Australia.

Like previous generations of mobile technology 4G LTE works across a number of different frequencies depending on where you are in the world. In Australia, the current LTE networks mostly use the 700MHz 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2300MHz spectrums.

That said, the networks are constantly testing, trialling and expanding their networks on other frequencies. Vodafone has 850MHz spectrum running LTE, while Telstra and Optus have both tested 2600MHz..

When Apple launched the iPad3 and claimed it offered 4G, it was only available on the 700MHz and 2100MHz spectrums. Because no Australian carrier offered those frequencies for LTE at the time, the ACCC took Apple to task, forcing them to change the name to "Wi-Fi + Cellular".

The good news is that Apple learnt its lesson from the experience, with subsequent launches supporting available LTE spectrum in Australia.

Nowadays, phones are launching with support for many different LTE bands not just from AUstralia, but also around the world. It will be a rare case that you buy a phone promising LTE support to find you can't enjoy the high speeds that 4G services offer.

Telstra 4G

Australia's largest telco was the first to jump on the LTE train, launching its first services in October 2011.

Initially only available to customers who purchased 4G dongles on 24 month contracts, the network immediately impressed pundits across the country for its speed.

At launch, the Telstra LTE network used the 1800MHz spectrum. Previously, this network was used to transmit 2G services, but with the rise of 3G-enabled devices, demand for 2G dropped enough that Telstra was able to repurpose the network for 4G.

That said, Telstra has since expanded its LTE network significantly, using the 900MHz frequency and launching its 700MHz network under the moniker 4GX.

Telstra claims its LTE network delivers download speeds between 2Mbps and 40Mbps, while upload speeds between 1Mbps and 10Mbps. In the real world, those lofty numbers will elude you, although we've regularly experienced speeds upwards of 20Mbps.

In Perth, where Telstra has access to a bit more spectrum, the telco rolled out 20MHz services that promised even faster speeds for late 2013.

Speaking of coverage, Telstra makes a big deal out of the fact its LTE network already hit its target of about 85 per cent by Christmas 2013.

Telstra also had Australia's first Category 4 (Cat 4) LTE device available from mid-2013. Since then, the telco has been powering through those LTE Categories, and in September launched Australia's first Cat 11 device.

Cat 11 LTE can theoretically push download speed up to 600Mbps. Technically the first Cat 11 device in the world, Telstra's WiFi 4GX Advanced III Mobile Broadband Hotspot features three band carrier aggregation, for much faster download speeds.

Those speeds are only available in capital cities on the eastern seaboard of Australia, and only via the hotspot device, although undoubtedly we'll see phones offering support for Cat 11 in the not too distant future.

Digital dividends

On the 1st of January 2015, Telstra turned on its 700MHz frequency and rebranded its 4G offering to 4GX. The 700MHz frequency was purchased in 2013 at the Digital Dividend auction where the AMCA sold off old analogue TV frequencies. As the lowest mobile carrier frequency it is particularly good at penetrating buildings and, as such, has been mostly allocated to city centres.

Telstra has big plans for 4G network development, with the company trialling Skinet for in-flight LTE data use, as well as bringing LTE-Broadcast online.

In October, Telstra successfully showcased its LTE Broadcast technology at the NRL grand final. Users at the event were able to access three streams of the match via a dedicated app, including watching the match live, instant replays and a dedicated stat channel.

Telstra has committed to trying to make LTE-B commercially viable within the next 12 months, although we're not sure when or how the rollout will proceed.

The telco has also performed significant testing on Voice over LTE (VoLTE) which uses 4G to deliver voice calls, thus reducing the total data consumed and speeding up calls.

In September 2015 the network officially launched VoLTE. Only a handful of devices currently support VoLTE, but that will grow as Telstra expands the service in the coming months.

Optus 4G

It was only in early September of 2012 that Optus officially opened its LTE network for business, despite months of trials earlier in the year.

The footprint of Optus' 4G network at launch was significantly smaller than Telstra's, only available in Sydney, Perth and Newcastle. Two weeks later, Optus added Melbourne to that list, before later expanding to Brisbane, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.

Since then, the network has continued to expand, with Optus reaching 90% the population in April 2015.

Optus shifted slightly in its LTE network technology last year with the launch of 4G Plus, which uses TD-LTE and promises theoretical speeds of over 200Mbps and practical download speeds between 25Mbps and 87Mbps, though Optus did reach 500Mbps during a trial.

While Telstra and Vodafone have FD-LTE networks, which uses two separate frequency channels for uploads and downloads, TD-LTE is a variation in that it uses the same frequency for uploads and downloads, but does each at separate times.

Optus plans to continue to expand both its FD-LTE and TD-LTE network. It has been trialling using the TD 2600MHz band in city centres, while also bringing online its allotment of the 700MHz spectrum band early in 2015.

Optus hit a milestone in January, with more than 1,100 metropolitan and regional sites supporting the new 4G Plus 700 MHz spectrum. And in March Optus aggregated four 20MHz channels to achieve download speeds of 480Mbps on a prototype consumer device.

2015 has been a bumper year for Optus, especially as it has rolled out its 4G Plus network to a massive array of regional hubs across the country.

Using Optus 4G

Optus has been able to boast a big advantage over its competitors with the extra spectrum it acquired as part of Vividwireless.

The acquisition has enabled Optus to build it's 4G Plus TD-LTE network with the 2.3GHz spectrum alongside the 1800Mhz spectrum, but this does require dual-band devices.

In September 2014, Optus also turned on its LTE Advanced carrier aggregation system that uses multiple 2.3MHz TDD channels in selected areas of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane Adelaide and Canberra. Through devices that support multiple TDD channels are few and far between.

Phones compatible with Optus's regular 4G LTE Advanced network include all the latest releases like the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, the HTC One M9 and Microsoft Lumia 640. A number of last generation phones including the Samsung range - Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3 - as well as the HTC One M8 and LG G2 are also able to utilise a large portion of the Optus 4G Plus network.

For FD-LTE support, you of course have the the popular iPhone 5S and Sony Xperia Z2. You can check out our list of the best Optus handsets.

Other than that, it's just a USB or wireless dongle for connecting your computing devices to the network, and the telco does have a range of dual-band hotspots available.

Vodafone 4G

It's been a rough couple of years for Vodafone, but the mobile operator has been working hard to turn things around, beginning with the launch of its 4G network mid 2013, and the introduction of its competitive Red plans.

Late to the 4G party, Vodafone had kept quiet on its plans for 4G for a long time, even going so far as to say it was waiting for the right time to launch the network despite rolling out 4G equipment to its network towers since the start of 2011.

Vodafone then began progressively rolling out its LTE network across the capital cities and major metropolitan centres from June 2013 for existing customers, before making 4G accessible to to new customers from July 2013.

It's hard to say where Vodafone stands in the competitive battle for coverage. The company claims it offers coverage to 96 percent of all Australians, though a quick look at their coverage map shows that the bulk of that coverage outside of capital cities isn't 4G.

Cat 4 LTE is also supported on Vodafone's network, and the network was quick to nab the Cat 4-enabled Galaxy S4 model for its customers in October 2013.

Like Telstra and Optus, Vodafone is using the 1800MHz spectrum for the bulk of its LTE network. The advantage of this frequency for Vodafone is that it has a lot of it, courtesy of its merger with Hutchison's Three network in 2009.

Unlike Telstra and Optus, it didn't participate in the digital dividend auction. Vodafone did sign a deal with TPG (who did buy some spectrum), which saw dark fibre shared with the ISP becoming a Vodafone MVNO.

But in December last year, Vodafone launched 4G+, which saw the extension of the 4G network onto the 850MHz spectrum, with carrier aggregation used to improve the speed of the network.

Contiguous for the win

Late last year, Vodafone was boasting to have the fastest 4G network on the Australian market, though the telco admitted that this likely wouldn't last because, as it was the last to launch its LTE network, it didn't have as big a load and congestion on its network yet.

In terms of devices, like Telstra and Optus, it has all the big names of the past year on its roster - HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, and the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Vodafone's contracts for devices are often the cheapest but the other telco's plans are arguably better value, offering notably more data for a few extra bucks.

Vodafone also offers pocket dongles and USB Wi-Fi hostpots, including those with LTE Cat-4 support.

As part of its Roam Like Home offer for those on the Red plans, Vodafone will switch on global 4G roaming in NZ, the UK and Europe for Aussie customers.

Virgin, Vaya and more

Richard Branson's Australian mobile network, Virgin Mobile, also offers 4G services. Because Virgin Mobile just packages up Optus's network and sticks its own plans over the top, it is naturally limited to Optus' network coverage map.

Similarly, iiNet launched mobile broadband plans using the Optus wholesale 4G network in 2012. iiNet expanded its 4G offering to include mobile phone plans mid last year, as well as launching a new mobile mobile broadband dongle and a 4G hotspot in May 2014.

While the MVNO market is dwindling, there are those that do have 4G services. Vaya offers 4G plans using Optus' network, while Exetel made headlines early 2013 by charging a 4G premium.

Amaysim launched its 4G plans in March this year with full access to the Optus 4G Plus network and new 700MHz band.

The 700MHz Digital Dividend spectrum and beyond 4G

In April 2013, the government auctioned off a chunk of spectrum from the 700MHz and the 2500MHz frequency ranges, have become available in 2015 after the final switch off of the Australian analogue television network which occurred in December 2013.

Wireless spectrum is pretty hard to come by, so there was plenty of interest in this, especially from telcos looking to beef up their LTE networks.

The Digital Dividend spectrum, as it is known, offers the mobile carriers a vehicle in which they can expand and evolve their current wireless offerings, and also keep up with the rapid consumption of data that having a 4G network provides.

Making sure there's enough bandwidth for customers is one of the biggest challenges faced by mobile network operators with data usage growth continuing rapidly, and this extra spectrum will go a long way to solving those problems.

There were three big winners in the Digital Dividend auction. Telstra and Optus both bought up big, while ISP TPG also had a dabble, picking up 20MHz of spectrum in the 2.5Ghz range.

Optus and Telstra will be folding the spectrum they won into their 4G networks, for better coverage and a way to help offload any congestion.

Telstra is also looking to supplement its 4G network with a national Wi-Fi network, which the telco hopes will also help offload heavy (and stationary) mobile data users off of its 4G network onto a more stable Wi-Fi connection where available.

But while 4G tech is still evolving and developing, 5G technology is already being spoken about - though what it will exactly be is still up in the air.

Telstra CTO Dr Hugh Bradlow has given a bit of insight, however, saying that work has already start on a 5G standard, which may end up being a network that brings together the many different types of networks that are available today, including 4G, the Internet of Things, emergency service networks.