Huawei, who were banned by the Federal Government from supplying equipment to the Australian 5G network on the grounds of national security, made the claim as part of its submission to the government's inquiry into 5G, led by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts.

In its submission to the committee Huawei said current policy would mean an inevitable widening of the technology gap between regional and metropolitan communities.

"5G is Australia's last chance to deliver ultra-fast broadband to rural and regional Australia following the disappointing outcomes for consumers on the National Broadband Network," the Huawei submission said.

"But Huawei is deeply concerned regional and rural consumers will receive limited or no 5G service."

While the Telstra submission claimed the fifth generation of mobile network technology would underpin the 'fourth industrial revolution', benefiting education, business, health and agriculture, it did not commit to a complete 5G roll-out in regional areas without significant government subsidisation, and made no mention of plans to roll out the standalone technology in rural or remote areas.

"Australia's sparsely populated, large landmass makes the economics of mobile network deployment challenging in regional areas," the Telstra submission said.

"Regional investment schemes such as the Federal Governments Mobile Black Spot Program have been a resounding success through Government and industry jointly tackling this challenge."

According to Telstra there are three key elements that make up a mobile network, the core network that connects users, the radio access network which connects the mobile phones and devices and the transmission, or backhaul network, which connects the RAN to the core network.

While early 5G network trials in Australia have utilised the 4G core network, Telstra said moving forward the planned standalone 5G network would be a significant re-design, requiring significant investment in infrastructure.

"The planned standalone 5G network will be the most significant redesign to the network since 2G," Telstra said.

"A hallmark of the 5G era is higher speeds, which will require augmentation of backhaul transmission capacity to carry the additional traffic."

In its submission Telstra shot down the idea of carriers sharing infrastructure, even if it were government funded, claiming technical issues.

"We are often asked if base station equipment can be shared by multiple mobile operators," the Telstra submission said.

"As well as not always being feasible, due to technical design issues or different vendor choices, sharing active infrastructure removes competitive differentiation, which undermines the incentive to invest in upgrading or replacing infrastructure to offer better crevices and, ultimately, delivers a less than optimal outcome for consumers."

However Optus did not agree, its submission citing examples of successful network sharing rolled out overseas.

"Network sharing and joint-ventures are a common feature globally in many current 4G LTE networks," it said.

"Network sharing arrangements for 5G networks are already in place in the UK, and Italy. In addition, China Unicom and China Telecom have agreed to jointly build the 5G network in China.

"McKinsey estimates the economics of 5G joint ventures is very strong, noting the cost of small-cell deployment can be reduced by up to 50 per cent if three players share the same network."

The Huawei submission said without access to 5G technology Australian farmers and agricultural sectors would be locked out of the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' while competing countries would have full access, gaining significant market advantage.

"5G will open up a whole new era of connected farming that is simply not possible under 4G or fixed-broadband technology and farmers in countries such as Switzerland and Korea are already accessing 5G technology that enables them to operate far more efficiently," the Huawei submission said.

"This is no longer a pipe-dream, PowerPoint presentation or a slick TV commercial, it is happening right now, but not here in Australia."

Huawei said Australia's 5G deployment was heavily city-centric, with network operators focusing networks on urban areas to maximise their financial returns.

WA Farmers CEO Trevor Whittington said in the peak bodies submission that 5G had the potential to drive the next generation of productivity in agriculture.

"It will help automate farming processes and drive productivity through precision agriculture which will help reduce farmers carbon footprint and the overuse of fertilisers and chemicals," he said

"It will allow farmers to apply smart farming mega data technology on a site specific basis taking into account the unique characteristics of each square metre of farmland.

"Water management, animal welfare, crop monitoring, chemical and fertiliser application, logistics management, linking devices to services to decision makers will all benefit from the roll out of 5G.

"The opportunities to manage the risk of drought and excessive irrigated water use alone should justify strong government support to fast track its roll out across regional Australia.

"The question our members ask is not when but how fast."