Mobile phone service.

This is why you should have Telstra. Optus is hopeless and Vodaphone a joke outside the population centres.

Telstra. Dark Green 4G, Purple 5G. 3G is dead.




Optus Just had a better look at Optus site. Even their maps are BS. Marked for external car aerial not hand held. Note how Telstra have dots on places and Optus has a big fur ball.




Vodaphone

Lang we are both with Aldi mobile and in most cases get far better covergae than Optus that we ditched because of poor service even at home. Dont even think about Vodaphone. By the time you get from Taree shops to the airport it dops off the plannet. If our van was on another site just 3 sites closer towards the off everything would have been great. Was not to be and now we are at Ararat with good service again plus an exception WIFI from the c/van park.

V8Ian, our BM is just over 12 months old and no marks on it and works well under normal temps but not so in the extremes like we had to contend with. The Engel still shines with performance even though it was only 32'c today, we are both so happy with how it is going. Tomorrow is shopping for tucker day (morning) and it will have more tucker tossed its way. We usually buy the bread we like and freeze the extra loaves. The BM would take at least 2 days when sat at the furthest distance from the compressor to freeze solid. The Engel had it done over night easily.
Steve our Jayco Freedom has the Electrolux 3 way fridge in it and it runs very well in all 3 modes but you must chill it down on gas or 240v before manitaining temps on 12v. Even on that 41'c day it was still cold inside and the freezer stuff in there was still frozen but it did defrost a little around that freezer and topped up the catch tray beneath. Its now back to normal.

As for having fun, these are our simple rules, have fun or give up. We look for things that interest us then attack the local information shop incase we missed something. Usually find more things than time we have to do it all. Back at Echuca we went through the National Holden Museum, Im not sure how many of these exist in Australia. It was a great display with many one of vehicles on display, #1 LJ Torana car used as the press car and so on it goes. Glad I went but the guy running the show needs a personality transplant.

Cobba

This is why you should have pure Telstra when traveling. Many people think buying Aldi or Woolworths Telstra is the same thing at a better price - it is not. What you are buying is limited access to Telstra Wholesale.

Pure Telstra gives you 65% more area coverage (what you need when traveling). Look at the speed differences! Aldi Telstra is not much better than having Optus over much of Australia.

That is all very true Lang but not everyone has a bottomless pitt of money and have to budget to what can be best afforded. So for the occassional issue Telstra have got a long long way to go price wise on their plans before we could look at the over priced service. If 3rd world countries like India can afford a service that works nationally then why not thwe same here?
With Alsi we get unlimited calls and SMS an 3Gb data per month that accumulates and that is suffiecient for our needs and only $15.00/month

That's pretty good going Cobba, my similar spec plan with Telstra is $47.

Brett.

Cobba

Not a bottomless pit. I pay on Telstra pre-pay $150 each 6 months for unlimited calls including to many overseas countries and more data than I could ever use. For an extra $10 per month over Aldi I get all of Australia and not have half of it in the cone of silence. I have always owned second hand phones and not sucked into the contract phone purchase rort.

I suppose I am an instant gratification person and like to be able to communicate wherever and not join the poor buggers climbing the hill or wandering around all over town holding the phone up praying for 2 bars. It can become important when trying to phone RAC or an ambulance after an accident on an inland road covered by Telstra but not your provider (000 works on any provider but won't get you a tow truck or less urgent calls).

The only reason the lesser services exist is 95% of the population have acceptable coverage in built up areas. Only travellers have to worry about all this coverage stuff.

You obviously are happy with your plan as it suits your needs. Good deal and I am sure you will survive, how did the world get on for its entire history until 25 years ago?

Lang

PS I think the reason many third world countries have full coverage is A. They are tiny compared to Australia and require only a fraction of the infrastructure. B. Almost everybody has a phone (even more than us) so the income to support services is astounding ie the number of paying customers per signal tower is many times that of Australia.

Telstra, by legislation, has many, many phone towers that are entirely uneconomical subsidised by city dwellers.

I’m with Kogan mobile (Vodaphone), I pay $160 per year up front for unlimited calls and text and 300gb of data

I'm with Optus as we have 4 phones in the family on an ABN Scheme.

I spend quite a bit of time off the air with where my travels take me. Even on the M1.

By choice I would be with Telstra (I was with them when I got my first phone in 1992!) but the economics of it for the other 3 phone users in the family dictates we all stick together.

At least Helen can't call me when I'm in the dark zones!

When travelling in Aus you need both sims, Optus and Telstra.
Sitting on the Gibb river road at Telstra hill, under the tower. No Telstra Signal.
Chatted to the Home Valley crew and they said yep, it’s all Optus up there.
We had no Telstra signal the whole time until Derby.
Got an Optus sim and all good.
Sorted.

Jeffo

Are you pure Telstra or one of the sub-agents such as Aldi, Woolworths and many other resellers? See the table above to check.

PS Just had a look at that area. Looks like Optus has a secret network on the Gibb River Road that they don't show on their latest maps while Telstra only has coverage marked on a few key spots and also pretty good coverage on the main highway . Very strange.

Optus latest coverage map.


Telstra latest coverage map