Mobile phone coverage

[Mick B]

My wife and I have been with AAPT with our internet, home phone and 2 mobiles for years and have never been happy with our mobile coverage especially compared to any Telstra user we know. AAPT uses Vodaphone, so I guess it is really a Vodaphone thing and not so much AAPT. AAPT will soon? be switching over to Optus as they have merged with IINet.

So what I would like to know from users of any of the 3 carriers above is what your coverage is like in general (especially between Optus and Telstra).

I live 1 .6 kms from the mobile antennas here in Orange NSW with nothing other than your normal trees and houses between us and the towers and yet we basically have no service inside the house and very limited outside as well. My phone is a 5 year old Nokia 6300 and my wife's is a fairly new IPhone 3 and both phones have the same problem. When friends come here they don't seem to have any problems with their mobiles.

[Art Vandelay]

I travel a fair bit in northern Aus, mostly remote areas or up secluded creeks and rivers.. I still get dead spots, but none of the others come close to matching telstra. Unfortunately they're also the dearest.

[Allie]

I have phones in my name currently with all three you have mentioned. Inside my Emerald (Vic) house, I (and visitors) could only get reception with Telstra mobiles, on the driveway there was limited reception with Optus and I have to go into Monbulk or Emerald townships to get adequate reception from Vodaphone and Optus - the house is in a slight valley. Down in Rosebud, where I currently live, all have equal reception. Telstra didn't have a great range of phones for what I wanted when I was looking for another phone which is why I also went with Optus and I bought the Vodaphone for my partner as he lost his Telstra mobile when his boat capsized and I needed a cheap qwerty phone fast.

What reception country areas get will depend on what network architecture/protocols are currently in place and what obligations or profitability is in it for the carriers. Even 99% nationwide coverage does not mean much if you're in the 1% that misses out.

[snappysi]

Absolute best thing i did was leave Vodafone....when i rang to complain they even admitted to me over the phone they had serious problems with reception and even made me an offer to leave !!!!!! I am a tradie and was losing business due to drop outs and the like. I ended up going with Optus and have been very happy for the most part.

Simon.

[ricktas]

In Tassie, there are lots of areas only covered by Telstra. Until recently, if you went up the East Coast of Tasmania, and were not with Telstra, you got zero coverage. It has started to change, but I have kept my mobile with Telstra simply because of the coverage. It is the only thing I have with them cause their home phone/internet packages are much more expensive, for similar packages as other providers.

[ameerat42]

Optus has done us for everywhere except:
-country areas of Tasmania in 2008 (can't imagine any better now, but don't know)
-deserty regions of SA, and from memory, not too good on Kangaroo Is either.

Next time we go anywhere we will get a pre-paid Telstra SIM for such places.
We will not switch to T because the O plan suits us well.

A recent visitor from OS who bought Vodaphone had limited coverage even along the coast and slightly inland from Brisbane.
Am.

[MattNQ]

There are now only three separate networks here - VHA (vodaphone/hutchinson) , Optus & Telstra. Everyone elses you deal with resells one of these.

Ultimately you can't beat Telstra for geographical coverage, especially up here in the colonies, but there is some hope now for those frustrated by the competition's historical lack of investment in regional infrastructure...VHA customers will be able to roam onto the Optus network

http://www.smh.com.au/business/vodafone-optus-unveil-mobile-joint-venture-20120503-1y0nm.html

...but not until april next year, which may not be soon enough for many!

[rellik666]

My husband is with Vodafone, but only for one reason, they are cheap and I am with Telstra. My phone is through work, but from my travels around Telstra is the only mobile I will have. I used to have 2 phones but gave up on that. I just hate that I can't have a spare battery for my Iphone..... :(

His phone signal is crap, can't use it in Port Melbourne sometimes. Drops out, doesn't ring through etc etc and he hasn't moved! Have friends on optus and they don't seem any better tbh.

[Wayne]

I travel a fair bit in northern Aus, mostly remote areas or up secluded creeks and rivers.. I still get dead spots, but none of the others come close to matching telstra. Unfortunately they're also the dearest.

Don't come to NW QLD, The NT (Outside of Darwin), in fact most anywhere in the Northern half of Aus with anything but a Telstra sim if you want coverage. Out here, even Telstra only works within a few km of many towns (some major towns) and quickly erodes to zero driving 5 mins down the road.
Telstra sadly are the least competitive, least value carrier, but they have the best coverage, so we are screwed. That said, they have began to compete a little more, clearly because others have gotten so much cheaper, but the disparity remains evident head to head.

[Mick B]

Many thanks to all of you who took the time to reply. Between your answers and my own research we will be changing over to Telstra very soon.
Optus and Vodaphone have already signed an agreement to share their infrastructure, but that won't be happening in regional areas until about April 2013.

[junqbox]

I've been with Telstra since 1993 and the general service has been brilliant. i often travel to regional areas of Australia and have never had a phone problem, other than what would be reasonably expected.
I often spend time on a property outside Bathurst (near Tarana), and every year I go back, the service improves. Only a few years agao, I could be certain work wouldn't bug me on holiday, now I can get perfect service there.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Mick

As many above have mentioned their experiences - so may I add to the mix

Although we are Tuncurry NSW based, we are on-the-road for about 8 months each year, 6-months primarily travelling thru rural NSW north of a line from Sydney to Broken Hill and all of regional Qld. For 'holidays' we spend a month or two also meandering down into Victoria and occasionally across to Adelaide > ie we cover lots of territory

Each night I record in my diary whether we have / have not Optus coverage, and if not, whether we have Telstra coverage
Of each 100 nights, we'll have Optus coverage about 90% of the time with Telstra about 95% of the time

My Optus pay-plan is $50pm for $500 of phone calls and 2gb of internet usage > and I never seem to go over the top
My Telstra pay-plan is 12 months prepay for $100 [at $1/minute] for the phone plus $150 for 10Gb of internet

Thus we use Telstra sparingly whenever we can't get coverage via Optus

We have found that most phone coverage "fades away" once you're off the main highway &/or once you're away from the outback town. eg- On the 1200km run from Cairns thru Mt Surprise to Normanton to Lawn Hill NP and down to Mt Isa, there is no Optus coverage and Telstra coverage runs for about a 25km circle around 4 or 5 towns > ie no phone coverage whatsoever for 900km of those 1200km

Most locals out this way use the Flying Doctor 2-way radio network or the good ole satfone

Last week we were 16km west of Springsure, south of Emerald in central Qld - and there was no Optus coverage out there and Telstra was one-bar which kept dropping out anyway [both using the external antenna on the roof of the motorhome]

Tonight we're 20km west of Charters Towers and Optus is coming in 'loud-and-clear'

ie- bottom line > the phone providers will setup the transmission masts to cover the local population in preference to the geographics of the region

Does this help any - I dunno but hope so :D

Regards, Phil

[Analog6]

Yes, I have 2 phones, one telstra and one Vodafone. The Telstra one has far greater coverage, and I take it when I go anywhere travelling. Both are pre-paid so I just top Telstra up when needed. And I can swap SIMS so I always have the most useful one in the iPhone. I've been looking into those dual SIM phones and am seriously considering one, I wish they made a dual SIM iPhone.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day again Mick

Just a thought ... & I do not want this to become teltra-bashing
Telstra charge the call rate $/minute as a factor of the recharge $$ that you have topped up your account

ie- if you put $100 onto your account, the charged $/min call rate is considerably different from $50 + $50 even if the 2x $50 payments are the same day, and if you were to do a $50 + $40 +$10 to make your $100, the whole $100 of calls would be charged at the $10 credit call rate

Caveat Emptor
Regards, Phil