Super Retail Group tests 5G to run distribution centre

Super Retail Group has tasked Optus with deploying 5G fixed wireless access at its Queensland distribution centre as a connectivity backup solution.

General manager for cyber, networks, infrastructure and service management at Super Retail Group Ray Birt said the distribution centre is ordinarily serviced by diverse terrestrial fibre routes, which are its main source of connectivity.

It has now added 5G fixed wireless as a backup option that is capable of running the site.

Birt said the 5G solution had been tested "to the nth degree” with Super Retail Group running the distribution centre "for a full day primarily on the 5G that Optus have set up for us in this space".

Speeds, he said, ranged from 20Mbps to 325Mbps, and were capable of supporting both IT and OT workloads at the site.

"Having 5g connectivity for this particular distribution centre, we can hand on heart say that we've got 24/7 coverage, and in terms of resilience and availability, it ticks all of our boxes,” Birt told an Optus Tech Day conference.

Super Retail Group runs “around half a dozen distribution centres” nationally, with its Queensland-based centre acting as “the primary” location for brick-and-mortar stores as well as online fulfilment.

He said that at other centres, the failover in place was 4G, but that this had proven to be not fit for purpose, with sites quickly hitting bandwidth thresholds as they tried to operate.

Super Retail Group has brands including Supercheap Auto, Rebel, BCF and Macpac.

As a former network engineer, Birt said he is “a little bit passionate about getting the basics right in terms of network connectivity”, which he said was "absolutely critical" to the group's customer service and growth plans.

Birt said the company’s technology roadmaps include potential future uses of the “new wave of AI” technology.