Broadband on the road
Submitted by Liamo on Wed, 2009-02-18 02:10
Hi guys,
I'm from Ireland and I will be arriving in WA on the 14th March. My plan is to buy a van in Perth, stuff it full of fishing rods and then head up the coast for a few months.
I am looking for two pieces of advice
1) who will give me the best mobile coverage? I will be travelling alone in a strange company so I want the best mobile coverage I can get just in case the unthinkable happens
2) as I will be mobile I'm wondering what kind of wireless broadband services are available in WA and again the coverage is an issue
Any advice would be greatly ppreciated
Cheers,
Liam
.thumbnail.JPG "Todays Dhu")
roberta
Posts: 2773
Date Joined: 08/07/08
Telstra 3gnetwork
used to be our old cdma, god coverage heading north, of course no tower no coverage, I can only talk as far as 300klms up the coast, we have on-site van in Leeman between Jurien Bay and Dongara then the next town is Geraldton. Haven't had any roblems with Telstra 3Gnetwork. I have wireless broadband but can't tell you on coverage as I don't have a laptop to take with hubbie and me when we go to Leeman.
There are some IT guys on here that will most probably post up more information than I can give you Liam good luck,
SPEWIE LEWIE
Cockburn Power Boat Member
Ginger Tablets Rock
scottnofish
Posts: 1621
Date Joined: 28/08/07
telstras the only one
for good phone and mobile internet i have had teltra and the broadband will work in most towns
i currently use three mobile broad band and i have trouble even getting reception in perth
Sex is Great, But Fishing Lasts All Day!
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
I have to warn you that
I have to warn you that telstra nextg is unfortunately your best choice for both coverage and the worst choice for price.
I'd get some sort of smartphone that you can check your mail on as well as some basic www services, perhaps the iphone - just make sure you get the special nextg version of whatever you buy.
NextG is just 3G but on 850mhz, not 2100mhz like everyone else, but thats kind of good in rural aus because the lower the freq, the better the coverage.
PS: Seen wolf creek yet? Thats essential aus holiday viewing, specially for WA!
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
be warned on fancy phones
I work mines sites all over Ozz. and I can tell you that I only use my fancy Ericson in Perth and major towns.
On mine sites, camping sites and fishing, forget the all in one phones. ONLY the Telstra ZTE F858 and 165i are the only options for good reception. With over 600 mobiles on site at Fortescue and Sino at the moment, we get a pretty good idea of what works and what does not.
Best modem is the Telstra one thats external aerial and get a 9bd gain good quality one for the roof.
Miners need to talk to their families all the time, they not interested in flash, just the reception onsite! I know of at least four or five Iphones laying in draws here and only good as paper weights 70% of the time on site...lol
Tony
Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels & The Wally Weight
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
You might find that if
You might find that if you're planning on using any of the available data services that the zte kind of sucks, I'm sure its fine for calling mum or whatever though.
Chances are, if you're an overseas traveller, you want to stay in touch with people back at home so that means email and net access.The push email service on a blackberry is really quite good too without having the misery of a blackberry.
Bit of a difference between going camping and being stationed at some mine in far NW of WA too.
I just recently set a friend up with one of those chump-change epc laptops (~$500) and a usb data dongle and vodafone. They went voda because they didn't need screamingly good coverage, just major towns.
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
read my post again mate..
read my post again mate..
a phone needs to be a phone and a modem needs to be a modem, if you want 100% reliability and signal strength.
I use the ZTE for talking to mummy and my boss..
and that's what it does best.
I use a MF636 mobile 7.2 card for the towns and good areas. In bad reception areas we have an external Telstra wireless modem, with external aerial on a 4m pole! hey what can I say, i'm a hight tech chimp..
too many people want a one phone does it all, from 6meg camera, to ipod, to tunes loader to phone to modem etc... the problem is as soon as you load the features, you have to compromise some where to fit it all in...
For me data and e-mail and conectivity is my works life line in rural areas. no show pony toys out here..
Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels & The Wally Weight
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
till
Posts: 9358
Date Joined: 21/02/08
Read your post loud and
Read your post loud and clear, just fundamentally disagree.
ZTE has a very lousy rep historically, at one stage the larger telstra dealers refused to sell the brand and I know my of my rellies had their replaced three times before they gave up on them.
M.Oates recommendation of using a phone as a tethered modem is a good one if you're bringing a laptop. It would mean you don't have two accounts/devices and you only have to bother with a good antenna for the car. Thats if you can't get by on some sort of all in one phone.
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
why two accounts???
I have a single account with a 6gb per month cap download and a NextG phone all for under $100 per month capped deal.
other advantage of the USB 7.2 modems is they on an small extention lead. If you replace that with a 3m lead and tape the usb modem to a 2.5m plastic pole, you get huge improvement in coverage from your camp site... yeah laugh, but hey "we make a plan" at times....lol
I hear what yop say about Blackberry's etc they good for city and major towns, but end of the day we only now buy Telstra 165i's and external modems with aerials after 6 months of working out here! ps we had no problems with the F858 model of the ZTE and the 165i's so far and there is about 60 of those phones on my site.
Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels & The Wally Weight
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
UncutTriggerInWA
Posts: 2692
Date Joined: 05/09/08
Telstra is your only option I think. Check here....
If you are looking for serious opinion on this and sound advice check the Whirlpool link below. It's where all the nerds hang out and where they all get beaten up.
http://whirlpool.net.au/
Cheers, Vince
http://vinceholt.spaces.live.com/
------------------------------
Work Smart - Fish Often
Vince.
Work smart and fish often.
Member and die-hard supporter of the mighty West Coast Eagles.
Silk200611
Posts: 286
Date Joined: 08/02/09
NEXT G
TELSTA NEXT G ALL THE WAY
Call me Brad as that's my name..
SHizz
Posts: 1556
Date Joined: 07/08/05
We had pretty good coverage
We had pretty good coverage with optus wireless when travelling around, how ever it did drop out from time to time and id imagine telstra wouldnt. But yeh as the others said Telstra is great...apart from the price.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
I am a IT manager for a
I am a IT manager for a local WA company, and we have sites all the way up to port headland in the north, plus out on the oil rigs aswell.
As much as people Bag telstra, they are the best option, and pretty good on price.
My Wireless broadband works everywhere, and i very rarely have an issue.
Few suggestions for you tho:
Buy a wireless USB modem outright, and not under a contract.
Get a Casual plan ie: no contract terms.
Costs at the moment is $59 / month for 1Gb usage, $89/month for 5gb usage, $129 / month for 10gb i think.
And before i forget, i dont think the software that comes with the telstra broadband card works on windows Vista (the wireless card does, but the software which runs it does not)
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
latest cards are vista ok
we have three notebooks on Vista and they working ok with the7.2 USB plug-in cards. BUT they not Inote or Apple compliant.
Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels & The Wally Weight
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 3628
Date Joined: 16/05/07
telstra up this way for sure
telstra up this way for sure
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
lets go fishing Brad and test my modem
lets go fishing Brad and test my modem ...lol suns out and winds down for now, but roads still flooded. The prefect time you need to know IF your phone works and modem... hell I would hate to be cut off with my fancy pancy Iphone in the middle of this flood and no coverage...
Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels & The Wally Weight
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 3628
Date Joined: 16/05/07
are you stuck out fortescue
are you stuck out fortescue way tony??
haha yeah i phones are a waste of time up here mate,
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
Lucky I got out
Lucky I got out on Monday, I was one of the last to make it through with a two-wheel drive hire car!!!
Staying at the Pilbara Holiday Camp in Karratha watching foxtel!!!till we can get back. Maitland river is still rising and keeping the road closed.
back to phones, just called my site, got through to both guys who have Telstra 165i phones, but the other three that had Ssamsungs and Nokia's, not a chance, just voice mail.
So again I can see the advantage of the external aerials on the Telstra 165i phones.
cheers
Tony
Full-time piscatorial-idiot, in The Vines. "It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek poet.
Supporter of Meals on Reels & The Wally Weight
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
"It is always in season for old men to learn." Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
"In a mad world only the mad are sane." Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998)
PilbaraBrad
Posts: 3628
Date Joined: 16/05/07
Tony
when you flying out mate??
Ozzy
Posts: 257
Date Joined: 11/06/08
Hi Tony, do any of the guy's up your way use the LG 550 phone
with the Extended 6db gain ariel?
Liamo
Posts: 16
Date Joined: 23/09/08
That's some serious info! Thanks!
Hi lads,
Many thanks for all the replies, that's definitely enough to get me going!
I work in IT myself and for the purposes of this trip a phone is a phone, a comp is a comp etc. Keep it simple!
thanks again
Liam
PS I have seen wolf creek a few years back but I couldn't remember what part of australia it was supposed to be set in. The great thing about movies is it's all make believe - right! I've lived in Ireland my whole life and I've yet to meet my first leprechaun
big john
Posts: 8765
Date Joined: 20/07/06
Hehe
You'll be right mate. Just don't go to the East Kimberley, to be sure, to be sure!
John
I head a little FURTHER NORTH each year,
Leave the cities behind, out of sight of mind,
.......
WA based manufacturer and supplier of premium leadhead jigs, fligs, bucktail jigs, 'bulletproof' soft plastic jig heads and XOS bullet jig heads.
Jigs available online in my web store!
Liamo
Posts: 16
Date Joined: 23/09/08
Campervan Dealerships in Perth
Guys,
Since I got such a good response to my phone/braodband question can I hit ye with another!?
I will be buying a campervan when I get to Perth. Budget is around $15,000 - 20,000. Most likely either a Hi-Ace or Transit.
What can I expect to get for this kind of money and where would be the best places to start looking in Perth?
Liam
UncutTriggerInWA
Posts: 2692
Date Joined: 05/09/08
Look here...
I have a Ute and a sleeping bag that could go for that price... LOL It cost me the earth and I have spent hours and days and weeks looking after it. It's only got 100kms on the clock....
Why get ripped off by someone else when you can get rippied off be me?? LOL
Cheers, Vince
http://vinceholt.spaces.live.com/
------------------------------
Work Smart - Fish Often
Vince.
Work smart and fish often.
Member and die-hard supporter of the mighty West Coast Eagles.