And we know how far 2 cents goes these days

"Rod Out back" <someone@Ihatespam.bigpond.com> wrote in message
newslk7249hf8q5kapf8ckfqapk048obrn0k2@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 09 May 2008 13:17:56 +1000, Snapper <snapper1@y7mail.com> wrote:
>
>>This will be interesting to watch.
>>
>>http://www.news.com.au/technology/st...014239,00.html
>>
>>Given my experiences over the past weekend with Optus v NextG rural
>>coverage, I'll be keen to see what Optus will have to offer us "bushies"
>>and at what cost.
>>
>>If Optus' claims that 900 Mhz is the way to go versus Telstra's 850Mhz,
>>maybe it will end up providing better coverage.
>>
>>Who knows? Time will tell, I s'pose.
>>
>
> Optus would have to spend an awful lot of money to come even close to the
> coverage Telstra has in rural Queensland. If I drive from Longreach to
> Rockhampton (about 700kms) with my LG TU-500 in a car kit, I find there is
> about
> 10 kms of the whole road that isnt covered by Telstra NextG. A mate who
> uses a
> Nokia NextG in a car kit along this same road reports the same sort of
> coverage.
>
> If I drive Longreach to Brisbane (1280 kms) in the same vehicle, I find
> there
> might be a total of 250kms total that whole trip that isnt in NextG
> coverage.
> Mostly, there is a 15-25km gap between towns that mightnt be covered.
> Pretty
> decent coverage, overall.
>
> Trips off the major highways do tend to get much less coverage, but in
> comparison to Optus, it's profoundly better coverage.
>
> If I drive around our property (60 kms outside Longreach), there is maybe
> 25% of
> it not covered by NextG coverage with a car kit.
>
> My 2 cents is Optus wont ever be able to match the money Telstra have
> spent on
> infrastructure, unless we have some form of comminication breakthrough
> that
> allows them a huge advantage over what Telstra have already in place.
>
> I'd question how accurate your coverage experiences were when travelling
> rural
> Victoria with a NextG phone. Were you using a car kit at all? Someone else
> queried if your phone night need some setting changes. I drove around a
> fair
> chunk of it late last year with my NextG phone (no car kit), and I found
> the
> coverage to be pretty reasonable. There are black spots, but I seemed to
> have
> little trouble getting a NextG signal most places. Certainly all of the
> major
> towns and centres had great coverage.
>
> My 2 cents.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rod.
>
> ----------
>
> Rod - Out back