MOBILE PHONES

CDMA does not give you coverage everywhere. If you need to be contacted get a Sat phone

A digital phone you might as well leave home. I have both CDMA and satelite phones. We have just returned from crossing the nullabor and up the centre to Darwin. I can't recall a day of travelling that we didn't get CDMA coverage at some point in the day, mind you I also have a car kit. Sometimes we camped in areas with no CDMA coverage but felt more comfortable knowing that we did have satelite coverage. The satelite is not as convenient due to the size and it won't work inside or under trees. I am not sure that if I had to make the decission again I would bother with satelite but sure as hell would get the car kit. I have a Kyocera phone which have the best range.
Also you will need to be with Telstra to get the coverage out of the Cities especially in WA. Hope my experience is some help.
Neil

For what its worth I found Vodophone network VERY thin on the ground in the centre and nth of WA. May as well have left it home.

Your Service Provider should have a Coverage Map available on their website so you can check before you leave where you will have coverage.

CDMA is the ONLY network that will have any useful coverage more then 35km out of large centres. Yes, CDMA will be closing down in a few years, but you can't buy any phones yet for the replacement network (3GSM, 3G850)

Satphones will have coverage all over Australia - but you will still have short outages. They won't work indoors and will work poorly in deep valleys and under heavy tree cover. Calls are expensive.

Mike

You can get a telstra pre-paid CDMA for around $100 so for that price, and given where you are going it sounds like a very small expense for what you need. It wont give you coverage everywhere but it will cover some fairly remote areas and when it does work it will be a lot cheaper than Satelite. As the others mentioned, Satelite needs to be outside. The other less obvious disadvantage of Satelite is that because it needs to be outside (assuming you don't have a car kit) it's a bit tricky to leave it turned on to receive incoming calls. ie. Without a car kit you wont be able to receive incoming calls as you are going along, and when you stop, it's not always easy to leave it out in the open unless you are standing there holding it. Also, Sat Phones use a lot more power when switched on in Sat mode, even in standby, so if you want to leave it on to receive incoming calls you will need to recharge it often. At least this is the case with mine.
In summary, use CDMA for easy, cheaper use to keep in contact with home if you can manage without being in contact all of the time. Sat phone if you have to be in contact everywhere but it has its downsides, and even they dont seem to have reception all the time.
Sorry, one other thing, SMS can be extremely useful with both phone types to keep in touch cheaply when phones are often switched off or out of a service area.

Remember with a CDMA (well mine any way) once it is "searching for network" they use a heep of battery. I can go from a fully charged battery to flat in 3hrs of no network cover. Genuine car kit with external 5dbi antenna is a big help

Good luck !!

If you go with CDMA, which is very good, then go to the expense of an aerial out front and the connection to the phone. You can get a connection to suit most mobile phones and I found that this gave me coverage nearly all round Australia including Cape York. The main exceptions were the Nullarbor and the top of WA.

Further to what Keenycruiser has just said get a CDMA phone that will fit to a "patch Lead" from a 6db "Broom Stick" antenna. Kyocera have one and phone + antenna + lead etc. should cost you no more than about $250.
The 6db High Gain antenna is on Ebay most of the time cheaper than the retail outlets.
Cheers.

If you are buying a new car phone aerial, I suggest getting one that works on both CDMA and GSM - then it will work for any phone you get (other than 3G or satellite).

The RFI Model Number is CD1795 and it gives 6dB gain from 825-960 MHz.

Mike

Hi Westskip,

If you would like any information our our dualmode CDMA and Satellite phones which will give you coverage right across australia, I can provide you with any information you need. Something that may be important for you to know about the Globalstar service is that all your incoming calls are free, and the calls made to your Globalstar phone (e.g from home) are only charged at standard mobile calling rates.

We have a special offer running at the moment for ExplorOz members also that entiltes you to half price sat minutes.

Let me know if you want any more info. You can contact me also at marketing@globalstar.com.au

Regards
Kim