Mobile Phone Coverage Warning.

Yes, I had a giggle the other day after passing Belyando Crossing (Qld), heading north there is a sign with a phone number to call regarding road problems...unfortunately that area must be in that 1.5% of Australia.

Hi Michael, It is not 98.5%of Australia, it is 98.5% of the population and 6% of the country.

I am with Telstra, travelled for 9 weeks with very limited service, rang bimbo in the Asia and complained about the service, I said adds were misleading, received $75.00 credit.
She did say that there are a lot more towers being built, so maybe next year will be better.

I don't think any mobile network covers 98.5% of australia

Correction.

The company's web site states.

"The combined 2G and 3G footprint covers 98.5% of the Australian Population."
Apologies

Mike

On the plus side it is surprising where you do get Telstra coverage. On a recent trip I received emails on my Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus at the camping area at Porcupine Gorge and had a very clear hands free conversation about half way between Longreach and Winton. Jut the phone on a windscreen holder with no external antenna.
Cheers,
Kevin

I have no complaints about Telstra's service.

In 2000 I travelled around Aus for 12 months, used a laptop and Mobile phone tethered for internet access. Cost me around $120.00 per month for that.

In 2009 I did the same sort of trip, Mobile phone tethered to laptop.

Cost around $40.00 per month, service better, faster, more reliable.

Any towns with 500 or more population, and a whole heap with less, are covered. I guess if we want more than that then a Sat Phone is the answer, but there again I met a fella in Palm Valley who couldn't get a signal on his. Valley walls too high.

If you've ever dealt with the alternatives, as in Optus and Vodaphone, then you start to appreciate just how much coverage Telstra has!

I seem to recall some deal about the mobile phone coverage around Kalbarri a few years ago. Because there was some deal between Telstra and the Kalbarri-ites, Telstra only agreed to put in a tower if they had exclusive coverage of the area covered by the tower.
This meant if you were with another carrier, it wasn't possible to roam using Telstras tower, because no roaming agreements had been put in place by Telstra for that area.

We had full signal at Roxby...even a couple of bars at Andamooka!!!

Just a quick war story about mobiles.
Only last year I was about 200km from the nearest town with mobile coverage and got a freckle of reception in which time I got about 10 missed call texts with one saying there was an urgent job (emergency services) and I was being recalled. I couldn't for the life of me find that half a freckle of service again so I went into the nearest homestead I could find to use their land line. I couldn't find any one there and I struggled to get a conversation through on the UHF as they were some distance out. So I re-check the time on my phone and sure enough full service. Turns out the home stead area which was only about 3 or 4 buildings and a workshop had a little telstra Next g tower on its roof and it gave perfect reception within about 500m of the homestead. I still don't know who the owners are and why they had their own mobile "tower" but worked perfectly.
Got a sat phone now so no need to go back either.
Tim

Here is a recent Technology News article. Telstra is going from strength to strength. While some Telcos are still trying to solve problems with their 3G network Telstra has perfected 3G and 4G and is working on 6G. I rejoined Telstra after trying others and am happy to pay a premium price for a premium service.

Telstra trials next-gen mobile technologyBy Andrew Mudie

- September 11, 2013

In an attempt to further improve its standing as the provider of the fastest mobile broadband in Australia, (ASX: TLS) has announced that it has begun trials of the next generation of broadband technology. The technology, called ‘carrier aggregation’, or LTE-A, joins three separate radio frequencies together in order to provide superior internet speeds.

Laboratory testing has demonstrated download speeds of 450 megabits per second (MBPS) for the technology. These speeds will most likely not be repeatable in a commercial setup when thousands of users are connected to the service, but speeds of 150 MBPS appear reasonable. This compares well with the proposed NBN speeds of 100 MBPS (Labour’s fibre to the home) and 50 MBPS (Liberal’s fibre to the node).

Telstra has not detailed how long until the technology will be ready to roll out across Australia, although at present there is only one phone on the market capable of using it. To coincide with the rollout of the world’s first LTE-A network by SK Telecom in South Korea, Samsung has released a version of its flagship Galaxy S4 with the correct radios to use the technology. SK Telecom has advertised actual data speeds of up to 150 MBPS which would download an 800MB movie in around 43 seconds.

Carriers in North America and Russia have expressed an interest in developing LTE-A networks in the next 6 to 12 months, with more expected to follow in a similar manner to the rollout of the now-common 4G technology.

The next generation (6G) of the technology is expected to produce actual speeds of up to 300 MBPS.

Telstra was the first to set up a 4G network in Australia and look like it’ll be the first to set up the next generation network too. The network, when available, will likely draw more customers to the telco and allow the company to charge higher rates for faster data. With the NBN forcing Telstra to compete more evenly with other internet providers for cable-based internet, growing market share in mobile will become more important if the company is to continue growing value for shareholders.

One thing to bear in mind is that many of the current crop of expensive smart phones have very poor low signal performance.

These days I run a $100 Nokia Asha...and it spanks almost everybody elses smart phone that I know for reception reliability.

I can make and recieve calls in the house with the Asha no problems but the handbrake has to go out in the yard to get a reliable signal from her HTC.

If you want good low signal performance and any results at all in some places, you realy have to chose your phone well.

cheers

From the first post on the thread, it doesn't sound like a Telstra coverage problem, more a Telstra reseller problem.
I think resellers like lyca mobile have access to the Telstra network, however it is limited access.
I doubt package B, the poster was talking about was a Telstra direct product.