But until then the company’s chief technology officer Alessandro Bovone said customers could have differences in their experiences.
For instance, one customer wrote to the Guernsey Press wondering why he was seeing a 5G download speed of 390Mbps by Frossard House but only 10Mbps in King’s Mills.
Mr Bovone said that at the time there was no 5G antennae in King’s Mills. He suggested that the customer was probably still connected to one in a neighbouring area and on the edge of its range.
‘Not all of the sites are equal,’ he said. It depended on the number of premises that needed to be covered by each one.
For example, the long-established site at the water tower along Forest Road is a three-sector site, with local providers each having antennae facing in three directions and which cover a large number of homes as well as a busy road.
Depending on the device being used and the location, a customer could see 5G download speeds of 1Gbps and higher, said Mr Bovone, demonstrating by connecting his laptop to one of JT’s water tower masts, across the road from where he was speaking to the Guernsey Press.
New laptops are now being released that can connect directly to 5G without the need for a physical phone SIM being installed, in a similar way to how many new smartphones can use e-SIMs, which can be supplied by a user’s provider either online or by visiting the shop.
JT’s Radio Access Network design architect Brijesh Nautiyal said that an average speed of about 350Mbps would be seen by customers once the network upgrade was completed.
By the start of October, 16 sites had been upgraded to 5G, with another 14 to go, including in Alderney and Sark.
At one time, it was speculated by some commentators that 5G would need many more antennae than 4G, but the technology has reached the point where that is not the case.
‘The number of antennae required is actually the same as 4G, and in Guernsey it’s actually less,’ said Mr Bovone.
Most recently, the antennae at the Doyle Road site has been upgraded, giving better coverage to another area of St Peter Port.
He hoped that all of the island’s sites would be completed this year, or early next, but a lot depended on planning permission being given, with several sites still waiting.
It is not only the 5G installation that has been taking place, however, and Mr Bovone said that JT was also improving its existing 4G network at the same time.
There is also the legacy consideration of maintaining the old 2G network, which is still used by some hardware, while the 3G network is no more.
‘There are a lot of devices that still rely on 2G for connectivity,’ he said. ‘But next year operators in the UK will start decommissioning it and by 2030 it will be done.’
Another important aspect of the new network is improved security, he said, and for customers to take advantage of this they may need to upgrade their SIM card, depending on how recently they acquired it.
This can be done by paying a visit to the High Street store or by obtaining an e-SIM by making a request online. This would not require the customer to change phone number.
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