Paul Wright16 July 2007, 8:14 AM
Telstra launched the Next G network in October 2006 after announcing that the CDMA EVDO networks would be turned off in January 2008.
Telstra launched the Next G network in October 2006 after announcing that the CDMA & EVDO networks would be turned off in January 2008.
Its promise was that the Next G network would "future proof" the Telstra Mobile network.
This controversial strategy is causing a public perception issue for Telstra in regional areas: the CDMA network is Australia's largest source of regional coverage, covering 98% of Australia's population. A lot of regional and remote Australia relies on the network as its sole source of communications or mobile access.
Telstra is currently running all three mobile networks (2G, 3G and Next G) side-by-side for a grace period while customers to move over and purchase new devices while the new network is being fined tuned.
The Next G network is a UMTS HSDPA network running on the 850MHz band -- the same type of network that Three/Vodafone/Optus have deployed so far in capital cities only on the 2100MHz band.
Despite what Telstra might like you to believe there is no magical, unique technology behind its Next G network, just a lot of towers and a lower-than-normal radio frequency on Next G (850MHz), which allows the signal to penetrate much further from the base station. Other 3G networks operate on the 2100MHz band.
Both Cingular (now AT&T) and Rogers in the USA and Canada are deploying UMTS/HSDPA 850 networks as an upgrade path for their customers, though there have been concerns about availability of handsets on the 850MHz band.
Several handsets are already available with dual band 850/2100MHz (Motorola RAZR V6 MAXX, iMate Jasjam, Treo 750 and Motorola RAZR V3XX) which makes it possible to do global roaming as well as roam off the Next G network onto Telstra and Three's shared 3G network in the unlikely situation that it has coverage that Next G doesn't. And of course buying one of these handsets gives you the ability to move to another 3G network with the handset in the future.
Telstra allows its Next G customers to use the Next G 850MHz, existing UMTS 2100MHz and GSM 2G networks at no extra cost.
Before building Next G, Telstra had previously rolled out an EDGE upgrade to its GSM network, to upgrade the older GPRS standard to double the amount of network speed and bandwidth available on its 2.5G network. All Next G devices have the facility (except a few Bigpond Wireless devices) to drop back to EDGE/GPRS on the 2.5G GSM network on 900/1800MHz at no additional cost.
Telstra enabled the entire Next G network at 3.6Mbit/s at launch, which was twice as fast as any of its competitors networks at the time, and then a few months later upgraded the entire network to 14.4Mbit/s.
This doesn't mean you'll be able to download at those speeds though -- current devices are only capable of 3.6Mbit/s, with some having a promised firmware upgrade path to 7.2Mbit/s.
Further, the plans marketed by Telstra BigPond are limited to 1.5Mbit/s. It's possible to peak above these speeds, but Telstra is using them as a marketing benchmark because of the fact that each mobile cell's total speed is shared between the users logged on at the time.
In practical tests on the Next G network, speeds range between 500-2500kbs depending on network load, coverage and download location. Upload speeds seem nice and constant at 300kbs, which is impressive increase from UMTS & EDGE at 60-100kbs. There is no network that even comes close to 3G coverage to theNext G network, and Telstra are able to charge a premium for access mainly on this point alone.
Telstra Mobile Broadband vs Telstra Bigpond Wireless Broadband
Just to make things more confusing, Telstra chooses to offer two products for Wireless Broadband access on the Telstra Next G network. One is through the Telstra Mobile area that sell mobile phones and the other is its consumer internet division, Telstra Bigpond.
There are big differences between these products, both in terms of price points, upfront costs and and contract terms, so don't assume they're the same thing.
What Telstra Bigpond Wireless has to offer
The Telstra Bigpond product offers a Live IP address, just like an ADSL, cable or dialup connection, meaning a real internet address for inbound and outbound connectivity.
It also offers a real-time usage meter via the Bigpond.com website, has the same un-metered content available as ADSL & Cable plans (with the exception of the timed usage plans) and provides an email address with each connection.
You can choose to connect using a desktop modem which interfaces via a USB cable and requires a powerpoint to operate and is relocatable but not designed for laptop mobile use.
The second option is the choice of a USB mobile card (shaped like a large USB thumb drive), a PCMCIA card, or PCI Express card for laptop/portable use.
Telstra has a set different plans depending on if you take the desktop or a mobile device, but both use the same network and have no difference between the end product (and, as noted above, the SIM cards are interchangeable between the desktop and mobile devices anyway, so it's relatively easy to work around this limitation.)
Telstra preinstalls SIM cards in the Bigpond devices and they are not advertised as SIM-enabled devices, so if you do happen to damage your SIM card while taking it out, BigPond will not replace it. They'll tell you buy an entirely new device instead.
In saying that, however, the SIM cards used are exactly the same as those found in other mobile devices, so the chance of damaging them is negligible.
BigPond SIM cards cannot be used for any form of voice calling and have inbound, outbound and SMS barring active. If you wish to use your SIM card for data in a different device, however, you can slot it in and simply use the APN "telstra.bigpond" and authenticate with your username@bigpond.com and your password.
If you wish to use your SIM card in another Bigpond Device not registered to your account (i.e. a desktop modem SIM in a mobile card), simply load the BigPond Wireless software (on both Windows or Mac), hold down shift and click the options button. You will be presented with a diagnostic tab, which allows you to simply tick the checkbox or click "already registered", then put your username and password in and you will now be able to connect with that SIM card and device combination.
The Bigpond devices are network -locked to the Telstra Network, but you can use a Telstra Mobile SIM card in a BigPond modem. You will need to obtain the Telstra Mobile version of the connection software.
What you can't do is stick another carrier's SIM card (i.e. Three/Optus/Vodafone) in any of the Telstra devices.
Telstra Mobile charges $299.00 for the Mobile Cards or Mobile USB modem and $249.00 for the Desktop USB modem. Contract term is by default 12 months, with a cancellation fee of $360.00 pro rata with the option of taking a 36 month contract to obtain six months at half price, the same cancel fee pro rata is applicable.
What Telstra Mobile has to offer
The Telstra Mobile offer is aimed at casual users who wish to use data bundles through their mobile phone via a USB lead or Bluetooth, or business users who live off their PDA.
That said, though, Telstra Mobile's data plans can offer better value and Telstra does nothing to stop consumers from signing up.
On the data bundles of $59 a month or above, you can sign a contract for 24 months and receive your choice of the PC card, PCI Express card or USB mobile dongle for $0 upfront. If you cancel the cancel fee is pro rata which works out roughly the cost of the device plus a $100 admin overhead.
On Telstra Mobile Broadband, you do not receive an email address and the usage meter is quite clunky to access and lags behind realtime compared to BigPond's.
There is also no unmetered content if that's important to you. You do not receive a live IP address and are placed on a private range behind a NAT router (i.e 10.x.x.x). You can still do VPN's etc, but some applications that require direct IP-to-IP connectivity such as VoIP may have trouble using this).
Connections through Telstra Mobile are allocated a standard mobile number, and are able to be used for voice calls and SMS if the SIM card is taken out of the data only device, with standard 25c SMS and a call rate of 48.5c per 30 Seconds with a 25c flagfall.
You can add any of the data bundles on top of an existing Telstra Mobile contract or casual monthly plan.
If you do not add a data bundle to a telstra mobile plan, however, data is charged at $15.00 per MB for Next G casual usage. The data bundles from $5 to $59 are available on Telstra Prepaid Plus connections and have a very impressive realtime billing system, where upon calling 1258880, you get a spoken read-out of your remaining KB/MB's in realtime, (this can also be viewed on the website.)
For light users or users who want to use Next G on a casual basis this is a fantastic option as you can simply top up once, and then again only when you travel or need it.
You can use both the LG TU500 or Telstra 256 phones as HSDPA modems with USB cables on Telstra Prepaid or simply purchase a data card/USB modem outright at a dealer and a prepaid plus starter kit, then ask for a free Next G SIM card upgrade and select a data pack via the website and start surfing.
There are no additional charges for using the 2G EDGE/GPRS network on BigPond or Telstra Mobile, and can it be used both on prepaid and postpaid plans. To use the 2100MHz 3G HSDPA network in capital cities on Next G Prepaid, you will need to ring up customer service ask for the 3G codes to be added to your account, otherwise your SIM card will only detect the 850MHz network.
Navigate the superguide
Mobile networks compared
Mobile broadband plans compared
Other tips