Reliable Satellite Internet

[away]

The missus and I are starting our lap around the map next May. Many of the places will be visiting will not have any form of Internet access. We have young grandchildren that we wish to keep in touch with via the 'net and webcam. Has anyone tried any of the satellite Internet services that are currently available?

If so, was it any good and what was the pricing like? Did you need any special equipment to align the dish?

Thanks in advance...

[Redback]

From memory satilite internet was around $3000 to $6000 a month or was that microwave internet, i can't remember could be $15,000 a month, either one is one of those prices.

Not worth it unless your a big company.

Baz.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Telstra has a wireless broadband on offer. It actually a mobile phone in a card that plugs into your PC. They should work where you have cdma phone coverage.

They too are quite expensive but nothing like the above. I would think the speed should be adequate for skype but you'll have to watch your usage as they have very limited bandwidth and I image it would cost to go over your quota.

I've been considering this for our trip next year too. However I'm worried that they will make you sign up for 2 years which will make it pricey.

[ladas]

I travel to some god forsaken places and for email I use my mobile phone as a modem linked to the laptop.

Generally works whereever you can get phone coverage (long as you arrange for global roaming on the phone)

It's slow - okay for email and the occasional browse - but I don't think it would run web cams.

Don't be surprised some of the most remote backwater have some sort of access to the internet now.

[JDNSW]

Telstra has a wireless broadband on offer. It actually a mobile phone in a card that plugs into your PC. They should work where you have cdma phone coverage.

They too are quite expensive but nothing like the above. I would think the speed should be adequate for skype but you'll have to watch your usage as they have very limited bandwidth and I image it would cost to go over your quota.

I've been considering this for our trip next year too. However I'm worried that they will make you sign up for 2 years which will make it pricey.

This may be the best solution - the standard "Next-G" phone can double as a modem, so your mobile phone also provides you with broadband internet.

BUT.... Next-G phone coverage is advertised as having the same coverage as CDMA, my experience is that it is actually a little less, but not much (I still have CDMA but my next door neighbour has Next-G). However, while Telstra claims that their coverage extends to 98% of Australians, this is only while they are at home! (and most Australians live in cities - we are one of the most highly urbanised countries in the world) Look at their maps.

You will have to sign up for two years to get a free phone, but you probably need a mobile phone anyway (and the Next-G, replacing CDMA in a year or so, is the only sensible one for away from the major cities). My understanding is the additional sign up for broadband can be done on a monthly basis. Find someone at Telstra that knows what they are talking about (this may be hard) and discuss the matter.

John

[weeds]

now i don't know the correct terms and would not have have a clue on how to set my laptop up to do it, i remember camel_landy in all sorts of places using unsecured wireless stuff when he was travelling around OZ

i have heard that all telstra exchanges have unsecured wireless, most small outback towns would have one, i believe all mcdonalds have unsecured wireless as well

this is all hearsay, maybe somebody can confirm

[ladas]

I guess it all revolves aroung, whether

"The missus and I are starting our lap around the map next May"

Means round the map of Australia - or something further a-field - CDMA doesn't work anywhere apart from AU.

[JDNSW]

I guess it all revolves aroung, whether

"The missus and I are starting our lap around the map next May"

Means round the map of Australia - or something further a-field - CDMA doesn't work anywhere apart from AU.

Like everyone else I assumed we were talking about Australia!

"CDMA" will not work in Australia from late next year, but remains in increasing use elsewhere in the world, for example, by Sprint in the USA. Its replacement does not work anywhere else, but may come into use elsewhere.
CDMA is actually a technology which is in widespread use worldwide, and strictly speaking the Telstra replacement for "CDMA" , "Next-G" also uses CDMA. The whole nomenclature is confusing, for example the widespread use of "digital" to mean GSM as opposed to CDMA when both are in fact digital technology.

One of the problems for world travellers is that mobile phone technology is wide open, and so few people travel that there is little pressure to settle on standards - it looked as if GSM might become one, but its short range makes it unsuitable for Australia, and it was never widely adopted in the biggest market (the USA), and is now essentially obsolete (doesn't provide for all the bells and whistles that mobile phone companies think users want), with no single clear successor.

John

[incisor]

you can get 3g phones that fall back to cdma and others that fallback to gsm

a mate carries both... show off that he is.... i dont know where he got them and i wont see him till mid next year to ask him as he is playing lost in the desert for a few months..... sheer madness this time of year, but he gets paid megabucks to do it....

a look at the 3g coverage maps will soon answer your questions on suitability.

helstra will have the best coverage, but also the heaviest pricing i would imagine

[JDNSW]

.....
helstra will have the best coverage, but also the heaviest pricing i would imagine

Telstra's "Next-G", their new 3G system, not only has better coverage than any other 3G system, but has better coverage than any other mobile phone system - but still only covers a small proportion of Australia, not even major highways once you get away from the East Coast, but it does cover most towns of any size throughout the country.

I recently got a quote from them to change from CDMA - same price for phone service as my current phone plan, with the option of broadband data at $49/month, but that was pretty limited data quantity, I think from memory 500Mb/month.

John

[Michael2]

Check to see if the Federal Gov't Satellite phone subsidy is still available. When I checked about a year ago, I could get a Sat / GSM phone on a $70 per month plan on a 2 year contract for $19.

Travelling around Aus and being in remote areas for a certain percentage of the year will qualify you for the subsidy. You can get a modem for the phone. Data speeds are not that great though. Good for email, but you'll probably have to send pics when you're in a broadband area (town).

There was no real 2 way satellite system available that was portable when I looked into it, the closest was the marine spec sat phones with data capability (about the size of a laptop).

[Disco300Tdi]

Telstra's "Next-G", their new 3G system, not only has better coverage than any other 3G system, but has better coverage than any other mobile phone system - but still only covers a small proportion of Australia, not even major highways once you get away from the East Coast, but it does cover most towns of any size throughout the country.

I recently got a quote from them to change from CDMA - same price for phone service as my current phone plan, with the option of broadband data at $49/month, but that was pretty limited data quantity, I think from memory 500Mb/month.

John

Out here in the back blocks of Korong Vale GSM is non existent, CDMA is reasonable.
I went down to Melbourne for some business, whilst there called into a Telstra Shop and talked about "3G".......
They sold me a new phone, works well as a door stop, not much use for anything else out here.
Called Telstra Country Wide and had the CDMA reconnected with full refund and no penalties on the 3G phone
Telstra are slowly updating the towers in regional areas,,,but very slowly
IMHO I will wait till the CDMA finishes before updating

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Out here in the back blocks of Korong Vale GSM is non existent, CDMA is reasonable.
I went down to Melbourne for some business, whilst there called into a Telstra Shop and talked about "3G".......
They sold me a new phone, works well as a door stop, not much use for anything else out here.
Called Telstra Country Wide and had the CDMA reconnected with full refund and no penalties on the 3G phone
Telstra are slowly updating the towers in regional areas,,,but very slowly
IMHO I will wait till the CDMA finishes before updating

Funny thing is, I live only 7k north of Brisbane, on a huge hill... yet CDMA coverage in our house is marginal at best (I have one and have to stay in the bedroom to take a call) whereas my wife's GSM works well.

[JDNSW]

Out here in the back blocks of Korong Vale GSM is non existent, CDMA is reasonable.
I went down to Melbourne for some business, whilst there called into a Telstra Shop and talked about "3G".......
They sold me a new phone, works well as a door stop, not much use for anything else out here.
Called Telstra Country Wide and had the CDMA reconnected with full refund and no penalties on the 3G phone
Telstra are slowly updating the towers in regional areas,,,but very slowly
IMHO I will wait till the CDMA finishes before updating

We were probably lucky here - only got CDMA coverage a couple of years ago, and apparently it was just a matter of turning a switch, but some of the older towers may have issues. One interesting point is that the tower was there for six months before becoming operational - enquiries gave the answer that they were waiting on the fibre optic connection to provide broadband, which didn't make much sense at the time, but does now. It seems to be impossible to get any information as to the actual extent of coverage - they will just tell you its the same as CDMA, and in this area (not just the local tower) it seems to be roughly correct - as I said, my next door neighbour has one.

John

[Bush65]

I have a bigpond wireless pc card in my laptop that I use for my regular internet connection. Works wherever there is a reasonable CDMA signal.

It is much better than dialup, but not as fast as broadband.

My area was outside the existing EV-DOCDMA (3G) coverage when I configured it about 8 months ago, so I set it up for the slower CDMA1X (for the same $$, I can download more MB).

[JDNSW]

Out here in the back blocks of Korong Vale GSM is non existent, CDMA is reasonable.
I went down to Melbourne for some business, whilst there called into a Telstra Shop and talked about "3G".......
They sold me a new phone, works well as a door stop, not much use for anything else out here.
Called Telstra Country Wide and had the CDMA reconnected with full refund and no penalties on the 3G phone
Telstra are slowly updating the towers in regional areas,,,but very slowly
IMHO I will wait till the CDMA finishes before updating

I was in town today doing some Christmas shopping, and there was a Telstra bloke with a display in the shopping centre. Having found he was a technical bloke, I raised this question with him. According to him, around 99% of towers have been converted (strictly they are operating both systems - both use a spread spectrum technique with multiple transmitters, and what they have done is reduce the number of transmitters doing CDMA - which reduces the number of simultaneous users). But a number of towers have not been converted for various technical reasons - for example, the Mt Canoblas one has not because its coverage area covers two cells run from towers actually in Orange - and the new system is more sensitive to handover problems with multiple coverage. He said adjustments to the transmitters would solve these problems. In addition, some towers do not have adequate power, or in a few cases adequate landline communications to operate the new system.

All in all an interesting half hour of conversation.

John

[Redback]

Sorry for the bum steer away, i found this mob.

http://wwww.dragnet.com.au/index.php?view=31

I got the info from this forum.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/609236.html

Baz.

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Sorry for the bum steer away, i found this mob.

http://wwww.dragnet.com.au/index.php?view=31

I got the info from this forum.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/609236.html

Baz.
Unfortunately you need a landline to do the uploads! This could be problematic :eek: :)

[George130]

We were told by telstra 2 years ago it would cost us $1500 a month for satelite. There was also a hefty set up fee.

[away]

Thankyou everyone for the replies. I should have been a little more thorough with my original post.

We will be travelling all over Australia, including many places well beyond the existing cellular phone networks. We already have a Globalstar satellite phone, but it is really only good for voice communications. We also have CDMA and Next G phones which we have working into our laptop when in range of repeaters. CDMA has proven to be too slow for webcam, but Next G works reasonably well.

Dragnet looks like it could be a solution but storing the dish will be a real issue. They also don't allow "self installation", so I would have to let them install it to my house first, then take it apart and set it up as necessary when travelling. (It seems that being a Communications Technician for 33 years doesn't convince them that you can do the install yourself).

Pricing is within our budget, albiet at the top end of it but I think that we will more than likely maintain voice comms via the satellite telephone when we are in the more remote areas and use Next G or some poor bugger's unsecured Internet when in towns.

With regard to unsecured Internet, I walked down one of the streets in my hometown with my Next G phone set to pick up unsecured networks and received 4 strong signals in just 750 metres! All but one allowed me access to the Internet. This is a direct result of broadband companies selling wireless products to the public, who then do self installations without reading the instructions. Great insn't it?

I made myself a quick $300.00 by walking in, showing the network owners the problem and fixing it for them.

Once again, thanks for the replies. Dunno why I hadn't heard of Dragnet. (being in the industry and all...)

[Captain_Rightfoot]

Once again, thanks for the replies. Dunno why I hadn't heard of Dragnet. (being in the industry and all...)
Mate... I don't think you can use dragnet. The satellite beams it down but it goes up via a LAND LINE to their base which they beam to the satellite. In other words.... it's useless to you from my understanding. Unless you have a landline...

[shorty943]

Telstra has a wireless broadband on offer. It actually a mobile phone in a card that plugs into your PC. They should work where you have cdma phone coverage.

They too are quite expensive but nothing like the above. I would think the speed should be adequate for skype but you'll have to watch your usage as they have very limited bandwidth and I image it would cost to go over your quota.

I've been considering this for our trip next year too. However I'm worried that they will make you sign up for 2 years which will make it pricey.

Tied that system - Minimax - OKAY for business email, otherwise just another Telstra rip off. Check Internode and Agile Communications.

shorty943.

[away]

Mate... I don't think you can use dragnet. The satellite beams it down but it goes up via a LAND LINE to their base which they beam to the satellite. In other words.... it's useless to you from my understanding. Unless you have a landline...

I had a look at their website and it seems that they only do two-way satellites services now. The land line type is finished.

[shorty943]

I had a look at their website and it seems that they only do two-way satellites services now. The land line type is finished.

Correct. Just set up a two way sat link for a chap in the Mallee of SA.

Problem is, where you going to fit a 2mtr two way dish on your van, and how do know just where the satelite is in relation to your changeing location. Passat is in geostationary orbit a little bit north of NZ.

The installation boys carry a very expensive locater to line up with.

Maybe you should consider one of the newer G3 Braodband phones that will act as a Broadband router for you laptop.

shorty.

[matbor]

have a look in some of the caravan and motorhome mags, might be something in the ads that might meet your needs !