Virgin mobile Coverage

I think Virgin roam on the Optus Network which means it will not have much in the way of coverage outside the major metro areas.

Have a look at the coverage maps on the Optus web site for coverage details.

why not get the iphone on telstra then??

Dan, I don't know about Virgin, but here in Kununurra, we have GSM and Next G coverage in town - but absolutely zilch for those on Optus. I am now staying a few kms from town and although my GSM phone rings, and receives text messages, i cannot ring out or send messages. The Next G phones work well. Telstra has out of city coverage exclusively so it seems, even though around here, reception is limited to around major towns.

Motherhen

On Next G internet

Dan

You make a good point. If you don't need coverage outside large town, then Optus/Vodafone is fine.

However, it you travel a lot outside of large towns, currently Telstra is the only carrier to offer broadband. Take a look at Telstra & Optus's 3G/next G coverages and it is chalk & cheese. Optus is slowly adding more cells but so far these are mostly in regional towns, not in the areas away from towns.

You say you travel between Gladstone & Cooktown. Telstra has Next G coverage nearly all the way between these 2 towns. However, while Optus has 3G coverage in the main cities, there is no 3G coverage between the cities, only GSM. This is fine for phone calls but not for 3G broadband.

Call it competition, but it seems that some people feel Telstra should not be able to charge for coverage that services a wider area.

Even if Optus upgrades its 3G coverage, I think it will be a long time before it matches Telstra's coverage. They will be able to compete in the towns, but so far Optus have shown little desire to cover outback towns where few people travel. A good example of this is Kununurra. Optus has no coverage within 500kms of this towns - not even GSM.

Have a closer look at Telstras offer. We got an Air card virtually free. We needed 1GB for home schooling while travelling. Paying $40/month for 6 months then goes to $80/month. Thats still only $20.00 a week. Recently got back from north western NSW, we look at our next G phone and if there is at least one or two bars we can log on. We looked into other brands that you can log on at any McDonald's or certain Hotel, and optus having a bag of trouble leaned us toward Telstra.