Mobile phone Coverage

[ContactMeNow]

Reading the "3G mobile phone thread" and being a boy from the city, a thought came to mind...Since I will be heading north shortly...

Just wondering what the best carrier is to use up in places like Kununurra, Broome, Halls Creek, Wyndham?

Since I dont plan on locking into an contracts, pre-paid will be the best for me and since they dont do pre-paid on 3G then its GSM for now :ouch:

Virgin, Optus, Vodaphone, Telstra?

Thanks or in the land of mobile phone talk "thx" :8
CMN :ok:

[DEFCON4]

Buy a 3G phone on Ebay for about $140(Motorola V975)...get a plan not a contract withh Optus...voila....... you have world coverage

[here skip]

get a plan not a contract withh Optus:* :*
I'll second that. Optus is crap outside the capital cities.
Enjoy the trip, its a big eye opener for a city boy.
:ok: :ok: :ok:
HS

[Desert Duck]

Telstra is the only carrier that will give you reasonable coverage throughout Australia.
Unfortunately, despite all the hype 3G does not have the range or coverage that is advertised.
Telstra comment - ' you may have to move around a bit to get a signal '
I understand that not all the aerials have been installed and correctly tuned - yet.

[ding duck]

contact me now, take it from someone who is currently living in the previously mentioned area, telstra is the only carrier that works in knx, wyndham. can't say about broome but i believe that vodaphone and optus do work there. also can get vodaphone in knx wyndham.

good luck. hope to see you in knx!:)

[remofo]

From The Australian - IT Section Feb 13th
TELSTRA and its network partner Ericsson have claimed a new record for mobile data coverage, saying a cell in Telstra's 850MHz Next G mobile network can now stretch to 200km.
Telstra said "extended range" Ericsson software had been installed in several mountain-top sites around Australia, saying the upgrade was the first time a range of 200km had been achieved in a commercial mobile network.
Typical range for a cell in the network was about 50km. Telstra said data rates of 2.3Mbps at 200km had been recorded during testing.
The new software would see peak upkink speeds of 1.9Mbps and downlink speeds of 14.4Mbps, Telstra said.
New laptop data cards capable of data rates of 7.2Mbps were scheduled to be released mid-year, Telstra said. "Since launching Next G with HSDPA, Telstra has doubled the volume of total data traffic carried on all of its wireless networks," Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo said in a statement.
Ericsson president Carl-Henric Svanberg made the announcement at the 3GSM mobile conference in Barcelona.

[Mainframe]

ContactMeNow,

As posted in the other thread, and followed in this thread, outside of metropolitan and regional areas, you need to think about which carrier.

You also need to understand that, under the Federally funded TSI plan, virtually every community of 500 or more had a funded CDMA cell installed.

3G and Next G are in fact "Wireless CDMA", 2100 Mhz and 850 Mhz respectively.

Every CDMA cell now has a Next G 850 WCDMA capability.

What this means is that while your GSM phone will work in KNX, Broome, Wyndham etc,
get 30 kms out of town and you will have nearly always nothing.

If you have CDMA or Next G, you'll still be in business a lot further out, and if you spend the day in Kalumburu, Port Keats
or any of the dozens of indigenous communities you will have a phone that works on the ground while you spend a few hours in those communities.

Optus can fix you up with CDMA, piggybacking off the Telstra network,
however, if you're still up there next year when Telstra shuts down the CDMA network, goodbye Optus, hello Telstra Next G.

(yes, Telstra will make it attractive for you to swap your CDMA for Next G)

Telstra will not be providing its competitors access to their Next G infrastructure.

right now you have several choices, Optus CDMA, Telstra CDMA, or Telstra Next G.

Right now you do not have much choice in handsets with Next G.

A good compromise is the Motorola Maxx V6, it can use 850 WCDMA (Next G), 1800 GSM, and 2100 WCDMA (3G).

If you dont go CDMA / Next G, your city phone will be just an expensive alarm clock and pocket game machine for a lot of the time you're out of town.

If you go Next G, the sim card will be backward compatable with your existing GSM / 3G phone, but not vice versa.

Hope you've found enough explanations on this thread, practical and technical, to make your own final assessment.

[ContactMeNow]

Just when you think PPrune is on its way out, nice people offer their advice on a question that not only I but certainly many other northbound pilots will have on their mind.

Thank you all!!! When I am up there I will get my hands on a 3G Phone and then look at connecting it up with Telstra. So by the sounds of it, its not even worth connecting to CDMA at all, just go right to 3G? Went to the Telstra shop and the lovely bird there wanted me to sign a contract on the spot! :sad:

Thanks again guys and girls!

Will hope to bump into you all up there!

Cheers!
CMN :ok:

[Mainframe]

ContactMeNow


Its "NEXT G, not 3G.

3G is even more metropolitan than GSM, not a rural service.

[ContactMeNow]

Mainframe,

Sorry for the screw up! Its been a hectic week moving to the other side of OZ and all....got myself a CDMA phone for $70 with $10 credit starter pack....should do me for a year or so until I gt my stuff sorted out.

Now I have reception :8 As what someone said, GSM would be just a useless clock and alarm....

Thanks again guys
CMN :ok:

[scrambler]

Something worth noting is that Telstra don't advertise their capped plans but if pursued they do a great $49 and $79 capped plan. Not sure of the full allowance but included is calls of around $250/Month ?? on $49 & $500/Month?? on $79 Plan.
A few calls on your prepaid or normal account soon add up.
You may have to pay up front (or a monthly fee) above this for a new phone but it can save you heaps in the long run.

[Squawk7700]

I'm on the Telstra $79 cap and I find it great for what I need.

You get $550 per month including GST, but at a rate of 70 cents a minute, plus the connection etc. I make around 300 calls a month of between 2-8 minutes on average with some longer and some shorter. Combined with a home line I get a discount so it costs me $68. I think it works out to around 20-22 minutes talk per day for free. It covers SMS and all services such as 12456 call connect etc, but it only includes $100 worth of calls to non-Telstra phones so you need to be a little careful.

[lk978]

Here is the simple answer,

Telstra!
They offer nextG which is different to 3G, only a few phones have this ability all are branded with telstra.

$49 capped plan is the best value, make sure it is NEXT G as 3 G only give good coverage in cities

i wouldnt waste time with anyone else


to answer your question buy a NextG phone from Telstra on the $49 capped plan you get a free phone with it

[OpsNormal]

...as 3 G only give god coverage in cities...

Wow I keep learning new things every single day! :D :D

In keeping with the times the "Big Fella" upstairs has a mobile phone! :ok: :ok:

Or are you talking about a certain CEO of a large (mostly) Australian airline? ;) ;)

[lk978]

no just a typo, there is one in every crowd 2 if it is a crowd of pilot's

[Howard Hughes]

Capped plans are a rort for the phone companies, I pay 12c per 30secs and a 12c connection fee, if I don't make many calls in a month it costs me almost nothing, if I make a lot it's still cheap!

That said capped plans are great for guys 'out bush' who don't have access to a landline...:ok:

[scrambler]

Just wondering how good the Next G phones are in the air? Can you maintain a conversation without dropping out like digitals tend to do?

Telstra assures me they will work as well as CDMA in the air, however they told me that cr@p about Digital Vs Analogue.

[morno]

G'day Scrambler,
I've had my NextG phone for about 5-6 months now. Have found that the coverage in the air at times may not be quite as good as the old CDMA network, however if I rated it out of 10 against CDMA, it would rank about an 8.5-9.

When you do have coverage however, most times (ie. when you've got 1 or more bar of coverage, and not just the bare coverage) it is possible to have a phone conversation without it dropping out on you.

So not all was lost when the change from CDMA to NextG took place, :ok:.

morno

[RabidNuts]

Telstra's GSM works in:
Broome
Kununurra
Halls Creek
Derby
Newman
Port Hedland
Telfer


Voda Phone only seems to operate in Broome and the Argyle Diamond Mine (?? - they won on a tender to provide minesite coverage!)

So even though their plans may be expensive and their customer service crap, the do surpass in coverage...

[Showmethemooney]

I'd definately recommend Next G. Few weeks ago I was flying Broome to Gibb River and I had coverage the whole way till i was about 3000' on descent into Gibb.

The Telstra $79 cap is the the way to go. You get $450 worth of calls (although telstra phone rates are ripoff so $450 doesnt stretch that far) plus you get a free samsung phone with built in MP3 player and 500 Mb memory card.

[scrambler]

Thanks for the feedback on the Next G. Once the Nokia comes along I will head on over.

I have the $79 capped plan. The rates are not that high compared to others however you have to pay per 30 sec blocks. Works good for a medium phone user.

When I was flying for a living I had a plan and used the phone alot less. The monthly charges were always greater than what I am paying now.
What is a rip off is the rates that you get charged on prepaid.