NextG wireless Broadband price drop

Ouch. I've never really worried about it too much as i'm on a $49 or $79 cap (can't remember which LOL) and i haven't gone over yet......that's with it glowing white hot sometimes :)

Good luck in your pursuit Bob, don't like your chances unfortunately. :(

Andrew

I do get the same speed with 3. 1GB is $15, and 3 GB is $30. There are others cheaper than that.

Coverage? You'd be a mug to use Telstra if you lived in one of the cities. Yes Telstra is better if you leave the 'burbs. But hardly worth paying several times as much for the same amount of data.

As Andrew said "those of us that don't have access to cheap and reliable alternatives may appreciate the price drop"

Thats right, they know they have people in regional Oz by the short and curlies and gouge prices accordingly.

With 3 I could get on average 50 KB per sec
With next G I get on average 350KB per sec

same location, same device, same time. (using iPhone which is of course 850/2100mhz capable)

Any 3G based service is always determined by location, network load ect

Telstra seems to suffer less of these problems, and in most peoples opinion worth the extra $$$ for the quality of network.

I quick read of the whirlpool forums will uncover a whole world of pain described by 3,Optus and Vodafone customers

Bob wrote: "That's right, they know they have people in regional Oz by the short and curlies and gouge prices accordingly."

For a minute there i thought you were talking about 3......can anyone say "roaming" with a smile on their face when using 3?

Andrew

Interesting I was just about to change from Virgin (they use the Optus network) to 3 as they said they roam to the Telstra network when out of range of there network.

From what you are saying that may not be strictly true. Do you or anyone know what the situation with coverage for 3 really is?

ok, it all depends on your divice, it has to be 850mhz capable to use next g. 3 will only roam on next g when there is a competiter with service in the area. all data is at $0.50 per MB.on top of your plan cost. 3 is purely for city use only! cause if you were roaming and using it $500 per GB is not fun

I should mention that i don't have 3 or know the ins and out of their deals, however my research lead me to this website:

http://www.wirelessbroadbanddeals.com.au/

It mentions that whilst roaming is turned off by default, if it is turned on, the price is nasty.

Coverage is poor IMO, with 3 focusing on the high density areas only.

It comes down to what you need the service for, how much you want to pay for your requirements, and ultimately your intended operating locations.

Hope that helps.

Andrew

I think some of my problem is I dont understand, 2g 3g, nextg.

Currently as Virgin works fine in the city and is cheap I only need the Telstra coverage every month or so when I go into the bush. So I purchased a telstra prepaid sim card and put it in an old phone 3g phone. But after just looking at the whirlpool site recommended above I'm not able to get nextg coverage.

I then thought by changing to 3 I could avoid having to use 2 phones. However from reading Whirlpool again it seems that when it does roam to Telstra it is very expensive and not the nextg network anyway.

Does nextg give better coverage or just better speed?

Sorry but I'm completely confused by it all. any help appreciated

bks- Next G definately gives better coverage, i work in the mines and it is the only network you can reciave out here, they really have the mining industry by the short and curlies, next g is the only phone and internet service that we recieve. In saying that if you are with next g and you are travelling the outback you will be able to get service in alot of areas due to all the mine sites having to run it.
But yes they are expensive on internet usage and if another network would run services to the desert it would bring on some healthy competition

Ok BKS,

I'll try and cover it all now, was typing on my phone before now at home.

2G is the old GSM networks, data on these networks is at dial up speeds ie 5kb/s

3G are the current high speed networks

Next G is just Telstra's brand name for there 3G network

4 carriers run networks in Australia

3 = 2100mhz UMTS and will roam on Telstra 2g or Next G (850mhz UMTS) if your device supports it.

Optus run a dual band 3G network 900/2100 UMTS most devices support these 2 bands

Vodafone run a dual band 3G network 900/2100 UMTS network as well

Telstra run a 850 UMTS network (branded next G) but it gets a little confusing cause they also own 50% of the 3 2100 network, so have access to that in capital cities.

There are 2 types of phones/ wireless modems..... 850/2100 or 900/2100.
You need a 850/2100 device to get the FULL speed and benifit of Telstras net work. Or a 900/2100 to get the full benifit of the other networks.

Simple as that :)

PS they all except 3 run an old GSM network but is not relevant to this subject, so have left it out.

Any device you buy from Telstra will be fully compatible with their 2 bands, others won't, Thats why your old 3G phone is not really sutible as I would guess its a old 900/2100 phone.

I just achieved the following speeds:

3 Tethered iPhone(NextG) Grapevine

Download 60kbps 1.09 Mbps 1.15 Mbps

Upload 103kbps 116 kbps 259 kbps



So Next G is pretty quick, but for ordinary browsing/email I hadn't noticed the difference. Pity about the extortionate cost of Next G.

Bob

My carefully constructed table hasn't survived the trip :-)

Or this on Next G........thats why it costs more

"That's right, they know they have people in regional Oz by the short and curlies and gouge prices accordingly."

So you want to Telstra to build a network in remote areas where it's very expensive to do so - and where the revenue is much lower than in the cities - but you don't want users to pay for building of the infrastructure.

Remember Telstra is NOT government subsidised any more - it works just like any other company - users pay.