Two of the main questions I have had about my move to Tasmania have been "what's your internet connection like" and "what's mobile coverage like." More on the first issue later, but the second one is extremely important, as we have no landline phone at home. There is a
Telstra phone cable at the roadside on our property, but apparently it would cost several thousands to get a trench dug to bring the cable up to the house and wire up the house. That's why many people here use wireless and mobile.
For the past week or so I have looked like a major gadget geek, often seen with an
iPhone 3GS on
Vodafone's 3G network in one hand and an
HTC Desire on Telstra's
Next G (provided free of charge by Telstra under their
social review program) in the other. Simultaneously pressing on the screens with my thumbs. I've been trying to determine which mobile network is better for my needs.
My expectation was that Next G would be better, just based on reports from others, as well as Telstra's legacy obligations to service regional Australia and how they market the Next G service. Here's what I've found:
- At my home, which is 5km and 480m up a hill from the west bank of the Huon River, it doesn't matter much which network I use. Both have the same signal strength most of the time and I've had no problems with either phone or internet use on both networks. Voice quality is surprisingly good. This is kind of funny because the Vodafone reception I get here is way better than at my old house in Sydney.
- As soon as I start driving down the dirt road towards town, I get "No Service" on Vodafone, but still have two bars on Next G. Once I hit the bitumen, which is about 400m off the main road (see picture of 'Old Road' in the post below) I have two bars on Vodafone 3G and four on Next G. In Franklin town centre (e.g. at the cafe or pub), I generally cannot connect to the internet on Vodafone. What, no Twitter or Facebook updates on what I'm having for dinner??
- Between Franklin and Hobart along the A6, there are also stretches where I get no Vodafone signal but at least a weak Next G signal at the same spot.
- In and around Hobart and Kingston, Google Maps responded noticeably quicker on the HTC Desire than the iPhone. Overall, web pages load noticeably faster on the HTC Desire on Next G.
This leaves me with a decision to make. I can still work from home just as well on the Vodafone 3G network as I can on Telstra's Next G. But if someone calls when I'm down the road at the post office, they can't reach me. Outside of work, there will be a lot of places I can't make or receive calls (those important ones like 'can you bring home some milk?'). And that is frustrating not just for me but for those trying to contact me. And then there's the social media addiction to consider, navigation and so on. Next G wins.
Which is kind of sad because I've been a happy Vodafone customer for many years, mainly due to receiving good customer service. And a concern because my OH's experience last year of switching to Next G and then trying to cancel the service was unbelievably bad. But I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, because as part of the social review program for the HTC Desire I have been very well looked after by Telstra folk.
Not being a techie person I haven't used any special testing tools to come to my conclusions, and I have no idea exactly how much I can attribute to the handset and how much to the mobile network. This has simply been my hands on experience.
Our dog Baerli likes to sit on the edge of the hill and stare at a white goat that lives across the road. The goat stares back and sometimes wags its tail furiously. I didn't know they did that. There's another pretty brown goat chained up there too but it is shy and not at all interested in the dog. They both seem to be doing a good job of keeping the grass down over there. Might have to get ourselves one of those. Although David is off to look at a ride-on mower this afternoon, much faster and more efficient than a goat.
Yesterday we had our first frost. The sun quickly melted most of it, but white patches remained in the shade for much of the day. The dog's swimming pool / bath was frozen over and even at 4pm still had a huge frozen sheet that shattered like glass when I threw it on the ground. This morning the rocks outside looked pretty much the same as this.
We have quite a lot of mushrooms growing in the paddock thanks to the heavy dews. This one has little icicles on it from the frost.
The benefit is that you can see the weather coming, so have a fair idea of what to expect in the next 30 minutes. It comes in handy when you are trying to judge whether it's worth going out for a dog walk.
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