CDMA Vs GSM

Had CDMA coverage, virtually all the way from central Victoria to Cape York Peninsula, and found it to be better coverage around the lesser known country towns. GSM was good along the main routes, especially coastal. Having both, you are covered provided you are sticking to roads. The Sat phone is more suitable for "off the beaten" track type adventures, ie Simpson or CSR etc.

hey evila I ued to use them a lot when I ws travelling up and down east and west coast and had both gsm and cdma cdma was more superior out in the bush area where it was common not ot get gsm coverage and thru work our drivers would get no reception but cdma would basically get you up and down the east coast a lot better than gsm. have 2 I dont use any more as I have no use for them if you like will sell u both for for 5o bucks.

Two years ago I went Sydney Meekathara with Vodaphone GSM . I had virtually no coverage except in places like Dubbo , Broken Hill and Pt Augusta and Kalgoorlie .
Last year I went again , but with a Telstra CDMA and had coverage in virtually every town I went through .

CDMA is probably the choice in Australian "country" but as you have indicated does not replace Satellite. Telstra web has a lot of information on it. One point to keep in mind is that Telsta are planning to replace CDMA in the future - there was a recent announcement by Telsta, but not a lot of detail available.

You won't find CDMA beyond Leigh Creek tower to Lyndhurst up the Oodnadatta Track, or beyond Yunta up East of the Flinders. Places like Innamincka, Birdsville, are NO reception for CDMA or GSM for that matter. If you go North to Boulia however you have reception for CDMA. GSM has a 35 km limit from any tower where CDMA stretches quite a bit futher, the limit being the terrain and the location of the tower.

It does depend where you are going and what need you have to communicate each day or every how many days or use a phone card at boxes.

CDMA has a finite life due to Telstra decision and the successor is as yet an unknown quantity. CDMA phones are bound to get cheaper.

If you are going "bush" away from the country towns you can forget about cdma as the only two choices are sat phone or h.f. radio---take your pick!

I went for a CDMA phone and a HF Radio.
GSM has bugger all coverage in the bush and CDMA is significantly better. Its generally only an extra 20km of range but is still a major benefit when 20km thru bush means a 1-4 hour drive. Add a car kit and you get around an extra 20km too.
Sat phone will do you well, but the cost of a months worth of Sat phone contract, you will get a years worth of VKS membership on a HF, and the purchase cost of a Sat phone compared to a HF is identical. If you have used a UHF before, you know how handy a virtually cost-free communications device can be.
If you are interested in remote internet access, CDMA is the better option too.

CDMA can be purchased from telstra shops for as low as $79 and it comes with a phone, phone number and $10 of credit. Get a CDMA on a contract, and you can get a $50 handsfree kit ($350-odd retail).

If you can manage to scam the bush rebate sceme for Sat phones, you can cancel the phone contract even a week after you get the sat phone (to take advantage of the offer while it is still around but not pay sat phone contracts when you dont need them) so long as you dont sell the phone to someone from the city, its all good and you can save up to $1500 on purchase price through the rebate.

Henry,

To get a better idea of coverage in your area, or an area where you are travelling to, check out Telstra's Coverage here:- Mobile Coverage

You can also zoom out to get a wider view.

With a good high gain CDMA antenna on my 'roo bar, I get WAAYYYYY better coverage than the Telstra maps. But it stills runs out eventually- then there's only HF or Satfone..
PS forget GSM when you leave the big smoke- bloody useless.

Our experience with the CDMA is that it is absolutely useless. Most times as I lose signal with my GSM phone the CDMA drops out about 200 or 300 metres later!
At times we have little or no signal in the CBD of Traralgon.
We have tried 3 different CDMA phones & have had the same experience with each.