Rod Out back <someone@Ihatespam.bigpond.com> wrote
> Snapper <snapper1@y7mail.com> wrote

>> This will be interesting to watch.

>> http://www.news.com.au/technology/st...014239,00.html

Pretty vague about exactly what they plan to do apart from how much they plan to spend.

>> 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.

True, the digital cliff with GSM means that the base density has
to be much higher in those very low density of population areas.

> 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.

But not as good as GlobalStar.

> 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.

And a car kit isnt always very practical either, particularly for accidents.

> 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.

They can obviously spend much more than telstra has, but are unlikely to bother.

> 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.