David Flynn16 April 2009, 9:33 PM
Vodafone’s new 900MHz 3G network and Three’s roaming deal with Next G help mobile broadband stay connected beyond the ‘big smoke’.
People who live outside Australia’s capital cities and cityfolk who regularly travel to major regional centres for work or holidays are about to get a more choice when it comes to mobile broadband.
Vodafone will roll out its extended 3G network over the next four months, using slabs of its 900MHz GSM service – but upgraded using 3G HSDPA technology – to provide long distance coverage similar to that enjoyed by Telstra’s 850MHz Next G network and beyond what’s possible with the standard 2100MHz 3G band.
Vodafone says that its current USB and ExpressCard modems are dual-band and can switch automatically between the 2100MHz and 900MHz bands while retaining HSDPA speeds.
Major centres that will go live during the first week of May include Albury-Wodonga, Ballarat, Ballina, Bunbury, Byron Bay, Cairns, Darwin, Hobart, Kiama, Lismore, Mackay, Newcastle, Toowoomba, Townsville, Wollongong, Bowral, Nowra and Wagga Wagga.
The second phase will kick in on August 31, with NSW towns on the roster including Coonabarabran, Blackheath, Port Macquarie, Dubbo, Bathurst, Goulburn, Broken Hill, Parkes, Yass, Thredbo, Nambucca, Muswellbrook, Bega and Cooma. A similar spread of regional towns in other states will see Vodafone’s network reach 94 per cent of the Australian population.
This should put Vodafone on par with Optus, which claims that 96% of the Australian population falls under the wing of its dual-band 2100MHz/900MHz mobile broadband service which has been running since last year.
And as of this week customers of 3’s 3G-only network, which is restricted to the capital cities (barring Darwin and Hobart) and the Gold Coast, will be able to roam onto Telstra’s Next G network when outside a 3 coverage zone.
The roaming cost is 50c/MB, a drastic drop from the previous $1.65 tariff for wandering onto Telstra’s steam-powered GSM network. 50c/MB is still a fair whack but getting at least ten times the speed for a third of the price is a pretty sweet deal.
Of course, the more time you spend outside 3’s 3G coverage the better off you’d be just going for a Telstra Next G service in the first place. It’s Australia’s most expensive mobile broadband service but in every test APC has conducted it’s also come out as the one with the fastest download and upload speeds, the lowest latency and the one with the best signal reach.
This worry could be what prompted 3’s press release announcing the new deal to avoid all mention of Next G, and instead talk up its “new 3G Roaming Zone”.
Only a handful of devices currently run on both the 2100MHz and 850MHz networks, however. This includes Three’s latest Huawei E160 USB modem, which is included in 3’s $29, $39 and $49 mobile broadband plans over a 24 month contract, or $to existing customers for 149 upfront.
Some mobile phones running on 3’s X-Series service can also swap between networks – these include Nokia’s E63, E71 and N85 and the BlackBerry Bold.
Not to be outdone in the speed stakes, Telstra this week released its BigPond 21 USB Mobile Card which taps into the recent Next G upgrade to 21Mbps. Telstra claims that “typical download speeds” can hit as high as 8Mbps “in selected CBD, metro and regional areas”.
The modem sells for $399 upfront, although a current promotion involving a 36 month contract includes a full rebate on the purchase price. The modem runs under Windows XP and Vista, with Mac drivers due in May.