TELSTRA & OPTUS

Telstra are by far the best for the bush

Telstra is better everywhere, not just the bush. They are much faster. Cheers

Yep, alas Telstra is the only provider with reasonable coverage.

Like it or not..... Telstra has the game.

Chalk & Cheese Stevo!

My wife has an Optus account and gets frustrasted on country trips when I can send and receive and she can't.
She will change to Telstra when her contract runs out.

Telstra definitely have the best coverage countrywide.

Unfortunately Telstra is still the only one to have in the bush and also in a lot of places that are not in the bush.
I say unfortunately because they have the worst customer service and they are not the cheapest.
But I suppose with the 36 billion plus dollars of our money they are spending on the National Broadband things will get better. Of cause I jest.
Kevin

Telstra by far ... but make sure you look at what Telstra call a "Blue Tick" phone. They give better reception in outlying areas.


Cheers,

Mike

Hi Stevo

Like all of the above, Telstra is the only one for country use. A typical case is every 2 years, we have the Paskerville Field days over near Kadina, SA.

The only reps that receive and make phone calls are the smart one that use Telstra.

Also from the top of Big Red, west of Birdsville, there is just enough reception to make a phone call, something that you can not try with other phone carriers.

We all knock Telstra, but credit where credit is due, you can make phone calls in places where the others and dead.




Cheers



Stephen

Agree with above, Telstra, I even got 5 bars signal at the tip of Cape York, but walked back to the car park and had no service.

Telstra says they can contact 97% of the population but in reality it is only about 5% of the land area. The others are less.

I do a lot of telco work.

Telstra, last count about 8000 towers

Only other competitor, Optus, almot 4,000 towers.

Funds spent by Telstra on its digital network (ie the bits of soldering and wires that make the difference), well, cause it's confidential, lets say Telstra bought the 200 Series Cruiser from the shelf and Optus bought the Great Wall ute.

So there you have it, though as with all good things, Telstra is very expensive, but I suppose so is a 200 Series Cruiser. Which one would you prefer out in the bush?

Don't get me wrong, I live in the city and use optus on my mobile phone cause it is so much cheaper, but carry a Telstra portable modem when I need to watch a football game ...

Thanks heaps guys --------- Yeah --- the higher cost of Telstra is the main reason why I ask the question.

Cost wise, we have the Telstra T2 EasyTouch Discovery 2 (blue tick) on a $49 a month plan. We get $400 a month worth of calls and 1 gig download usage. It is just a phone, not one of those smart phones, but that is all we wanted for travel. When in remote areas we plug our external antenna into the phone and usually get very good coverage. We also use the phone as a modem on our laptop. We also carry a Next G Bigpond Ultimate wireless modem but the phone has better coverage then the wireless modem, even with the antenna plugged into either. (Carry patch leads for both) Because we have bundled our home phone we get certain discounts.
We did all this over 12 months ago but I think you can get better deals now.
Kevin

As all have said here, Telstra has the best bush coverage. I have a Telstra Blue Tick phone.

As the telco marketing folk keep saying they cover 97%+ of people. Australia is still a big place and in terms of area there is a lot of space not covered by mobile phone coverage. You will not get coverage if you camp at Lake Harry on the Birdsville track

Even on parts of the Stuart Highway there are signs showing large distances to the next pay phone.

If you need the phone to get you out of a break down or the like in remote Australia, best you think about a Satellite phone or HF radio.

Enjoy your trip, Cheers

I have a Telstra and an Optus account .Last weekend ,miles from anywhere,the optus phone rang and cut out through lack of signal.I retrieved the number and rang back the caller on the Telstra phone with a good strong signal.

When Telstra was a govt department ,it spent years and billions of dollars(of our money) putting up phone towers where it was not economically viable to do so.
Companies from overseas only want to put up towers near cities and towns where they can make a buck.
I have always had a Telstra account because I helped pay for all those "unviable" phone towers and now I enjoy using them.

We are with Telstra and I just got a new Samsung Galaxy II, great phone but with the worst reception now that we have left Brisbane, keeps dropping out. MY wife has the old phone with the tick and guess who's phone we are using all the time now. I believe the new IPhone 4 has the tick but check it on line first or the Motorola has the tick but as far as the new smart phones go they are far and few between and if you are going away from the city's it's a must a bit like Telstra it's a must.
Cheers
Rick P