the next G network

Apparently crappy DSL = G3 YAY now farmers can get 56kbyte per second downloads.

I doubt it. Where the AMPS system gave them satisfactory mobile telephony, and the CDMA system gave them slightly dodgy mobile telephony, the new system will give them totally dodgy telephony and even more unreliable mobile data. I doubt many farmers can afford mobile satellite phones though :-(

Once upon a time Telstra *improved* their services each year, then it was deemed corporatisation/privatisation would soon fix that, and it did!

MrT.

dont be surprised if you find lots of black holes cause i went out for several tests on different sites and i can tell you it aint all that they make it out to be.

moo.

btw has anyone seen the big stink up about belden patch cable? apparently it hasnt been ACA approved for the last 2 years

removal of the board and upper management , replacement with low salary high profit incentive management would fix 90% of the Shiite.

was

Not a hope now that all the engineers and techs are gone, the research labs closed, and technical expertise is pretty much history. Management can play all the games they want, but that won't fix the network, even if they wanted to, and they don't.

MrT.

Are you talking about cell-phopne network, or something else.

My view is 'why bother'. It transpires that the magic capabilities of 3G devices haven't given anybody a long-term stiffy (apart from the initial thrill), and all people really want to do is talk and send the occasional text.

geoff

Most people I talk to (myself included) would rather the money be spent on providing greater coverage for voice. The new 3G network is about one thing and one thing only - locking customers into Telstra so they can claw back their monopoly. The way it works is simple - GovCo required Telstra to share their CDMA network with other carriers(AFAIK this requirement was made because GovCo partly funded it). By replacing CDMA with the new 3G network, they won't have to share the network with other carriers. The flip side of this too, is that the network will not be handset-compatible with other carriers. This will additionally serve to lock customers into Telstra and stop them churning to other carriers.

Basically the whole situation has arisen because GovCo completely screwed up when they changed Telstra from a legislated Gov owned monopoly to the privatisation/competition shambles we have now. Telstra should have been split in two. The infrastructure side should have remained Gov owned and as a wholesaler only, wholesaling to privatised retailers. Such a situation would have put all competitors on a truly level footing, instead of having one super strong company running roughshod over smaller competitors. Considering the mobile network, if all the money that had been spent by Telstra on it's 4 networks thus far, plus Optus, Voda, and the other minor players, was turned into providing one underlying infrastructure network that was then resold, we would have much better coverage than we do now.

Thank you to all contributers. What Graham suggests makes sense.I was convinced that there where reasons why Telstra wanted to scrapp the CDMA network. Telstra has offered a free upgrade to the Next 3G Network. (I'm a contracted Mobile Broadband subscriber). The missrepresented CDMA(1xRTT/EVDO network,with it's only 9 actual national mobile broadband locations will be replaced in 2008, according to a letter from Telstra's Executive Director,Customer Sales and Services.There might be one or two new locations,it's too expensive to browse Telstras extremly slow web site,to check it out.

Telstra avertised mobile broadband with its"I've been everywhere" jingle,implying exstensive national wide mobile broadband coverage,a discustingly deceptive way to snare customers ,because most of the the places mentioned in that jingle only have ordinary dial up speeds.Not the avertised "up to 100kb/sec bursts".I've used 3 different locations each time within 200 meters of the transmission tower and the the best I can get 200k north of Brissie is 41kb/sec.This can increase to 75kb/sec at

The letter also said that the new network will offer faster speeds.What it doesn't say is that this faster speed is uniformly available.Only that " it covers 98% of the Australian population".And they used that same term to trick people into beliving that mobile broadband access is nation wide with the CDMA network.

It seems N.Z. is going the right way of splitting their Telco in two.With the infrastructure remaining under Gov.controll.

I now have problems beliving that Telstra is a service company,ever since George Negus's report on SBS on Telstras CEO.The real service seems to be to themself's.

Mathew

on

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funded

Graham pretty much hit the nail on the head, except for a few points I'd like to add:

1. Telstra had contracted Nortel to manage the "core" CDMA infrastructure on a fully maintained basis and that contract has either expired or is due to do so soon. Hence Telstra couldn't care less about the existing CDMA infrastructre since they would have to pay out a substantial sum to keep operating it, upgrade it, etc.
2. Telstra didn't buy any (or at least very much) dedicated 3G spectrum that covers the major urban areas. They would have to buy access to offer services equivalent to "3" (for example). Telstra's policy appears to be to never buy/rent/lease anything from a competitor.
3. By moving to a new 850 MHz infrastructure they can re-use the band they do own and some site facilities (in remote areas) and they effectively prevent the existing core CDMA network being re-activated and used to offer lower cost voice/messaging in competition to their higher priced and largely unwanted packages with "bundled content".
4. The revenue models that all the carriers seem wedded to place heavy emphasis on the "content" services rather than the basic services. I can imagine Telstra see their Foxtel involvement as a way of obtaining content and double dipping into profit centres. Frankly I can't see DVB-H being all that important in AU. With very high density population centres like Tokyo (and in Europe) that have a huge literally captive commuter base, the provision of DVB-H is probably a worthwhile service. But in my opinion it will be a long time before that market matures in Au because of the hugely different lifestyle.
5. I believe if anyone can offer a low operating cost, low priced voice/messaging service with good coverage thay would have a good long term business proposition. Imagine the usage that Yahoo or MSN messengers would generate over an SMS like service that cost 1c (or less) a message. Casts the shut down of the older CDMA network and the need to adopt a new technology in a new light doesn't it?

You know that is so Right, If only they would get a better coverage, so when your on the country road there is still a Signal. Dont need Video, that's what a TV is for.. Just want to phone or Send a Text..

Telstra claimed to me that they are currently getting 520k (as in slightly faster than 512k dsl) and that by time they finished the rollout it would be up to 1400k. Another stated that with a few upgrades after rollout completion they will have 22mb internet. I must admit though, the wireless foxtel nearly has me interested. Went into the Telstra store yesterday to take a look at it, and it was down. Good advertising.

I think a lot of other farming areas will be reasonably slow to adapt to the technology as Telstra are claiming that with the HSDPA? technology, you no longer need a car antenna to boost the signal. This is the biggest reason I have not downgraded yet.

For all of those folk decrying the potential benefit of Telstra's Next G network I live in regional Queensland and have recently connected to the Next G network since my ISDN internet connection is very slow and Telstra has no plans to upgrade the copper service in this area.

My need for internet access include both periods when I work from a home office and periods when I am in other capital cities at standards and industry group meetings. Prior to connection to Next G those needs were satisfied by ISDN for the home office and Telstra's EDVO mobile broadband when travelling.

ISDN internet cannot be termed as broadband as the following results demonstrate.

ISDN = 130 mS Ping 124 Kb/S Download 36K b/S Upload Next G = 95mS Ping 1368 Kb/S Download 316 Kb/S Upload

This result is with two out of five bars signal strength for Next G after fitting Telstra's optional antenna. In terms of cost the monthly cost of ISDN and bigpond's ISDN internet is $108.86/month plus EDVO mobile internet at $59.95 compared to $199.00 for Next G which works both at home and when travelling. The only downside to Next G is the 3 Gigabyte limit compared to unlimited ISDN and unlimited ISDN.

In summary for all country people such as myself Next G is the only snesible way forward given the size of the network, the planned network upgrades and the superior penetration of the 850MHz signals within buildings.

Ralph