Unsurprisingly, there are plenty of grand-sounding claims when it comes to coverage. Telstra, for instance, claims to have “Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile network”. It claims its network is “more than 100 times the size” of any of its competitors’, and covers 98.8 per cent of the Australian population. Telstra’s network is theoretically capable of speeds up to 7.2Mb/s. In practice, it says, you should see speeds up to 3Mb/s, bursting up to 6Mb/s in “some areas”.
Virgin is owned by Optus, and not surprisingly, the 3G network coverage claimed by the two companies is identical. Optus claims its network reaches 80 per cent of the population, but plans to cover 96 per cent by the end of the year -over 690,000 square miles of Australia. Its speed claims are a little less eye-popping than Telstra’s, but still respectable: it claims customers should expect speeds up to 1.5Mb/s. Keep in mind that Virgin currently offers a 5G service, while Optus offers a faster HSDPA service.
Vodafone says “our 3G broadband network covers metropolitan areas in Sydney, Central Coast, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, Adelaide and Perth, plus all major international airports, and is constantly expanding.” It notes that its GPRS network covers 92 per cent “of the places people live and work in Australia”, but using GPRS for surfing the internet from a laptop remains a frustrating measure of last resort.
The Results:
Bigpond – 4/6 stars
3 mobile – 5/6 stars
Vodafone – 4/6 stars
Unwired – 3/6 stars
Virgin – 4/6 stars
Telstra – 4/6 stars
Optus – 5/6 stars
