Thread: Awful Outback mobile and internet service

Originally Posted by AndyG

i would like my firewood, rabbits and flies subsidised in the City to outback prices to maintain parity

We ain't got no rabbits 🐰

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

For several weeks , two or three times a year I go bush....central Australia where there are few services.

You know what? My phone ends up buried somewhere , I plug the stick in and listen to whatever random song out of several thousand comes up.

I rarely listen to a news broadcast and nothing changes when I get home. The grass might be longer if we have rain while I'm away.

Here's reality , I know a lot of cockys out there and none of them care less about mobiles , internet, facebook etc.

They have their wireless turned onto ABC to hear livestock , weather and feed reports. I have never seen one stationhand or rouseabout with a mobile phone , it's only the coasters.

The mobiles don't work, so why would they have them out?

Good story about the problem here:
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2141938.htm

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

For several weeks , two or three times a year I go bush....central Australia where there are few services.

You know what? My phone ends up buried somewhere , I plug the stick in and listen to whatever random song out of several thousand comes up.

I rarely listen to a news broadcast and nothing changes when I get home. The grass might be longer if we have rain while I'm away.

Here's reality , I know a lot of cockys out there and none of them care less about mobiles , internet, facebook etc.

They have their wireless turned onto ABC to hear livestock , weather and feed reports. I have never seen one stationhand or rouseabout with a mobile phone , it's only the coasters.

In 20 years of remote travel I have never met a farmer, station hand or rouseabout without a mobile phone. They have a business to run and need to be contactable. In my experience the real remote farmers also have sat phones.

Pricey

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

The mobiles don't work, so why would they have them out?

Good story about the problem here:
The 7.30 Report - ABC

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

Interesting article.
Why are Telstra forcing people to switch to a network that is being shut down at the end of the year?
Oh. I see. The article is eight years old.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I can understand telephone companies making a commercial decision to concentrate on the most profitable urban areas, but we expect our governments to act to ensure a reasonable standard of communications are available throughout the country. Many MPs claim to represent rural constituents, but in fact they seem to have dropped the ball.

Why was nothing done about it back then?

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Interesting article.
Why are Telstra forcing people to switch to a network that is being shut down at the end of the year?
Oh. I see. The article is eight years old.

Why was nothing done about it back then?

That's an excellent quesion.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

It is possible for the phone companies to improve the mobile service in the outback, if they are pushed to do it. Satellite feeds to towns are one option.


Birdsville gets first satellite-fed 3G service - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)


Part of the problem is the system adopted by the Hawke Government which made each phone company erect its own network, so you get duplication of networks at a higher cost. There is another option of having only one national network and letting multiple phone companies pay licence fees to operate on that network, making it self-funding. Theoretically, we could have had a much greater coverage for the same cost under that model. However, those that are supposedly wiser than us rejected the national network model in favour of a competition model, which has had exactly the negative effects which were predicted - duplicated costs and reduced coverage area. It didn't have to be that way.

We could have also kept the analogue phone system, which had a much greater range than digital phone systems. I regularly got reception 30 km from the nearest tower (when it was in the boosted 5W car cradle) and lets face it congestion is never going to be a problem in remote areas. We could also have gone to the option of hybrid phones that would work on the digital systems by default and switch to analogue in remote areas.

Most people would have gone 100% digital and while regular travellers and people who live/work in remote regions would have had hybrid phones.

As far as I can see this thread is dealing with two separate issues. Mobile reception and internet.

There is a very real issue with remote communities not having internet access at affordable rates. As more government service, banking, insurance etc can only be done online that means we have those with internet and services and those who do not. To further complicate issues the satellite internet services being delivered by the NBN to remote area's will be high latency. Better to have high latency and internet than no internet.. However it does impact a number of internet service like voice and video when the latency becomes high. In my previous role I was working with a federal government agency to introduce internet voice chat (and related technology) to help communicate with people who have hearing and or sight problems as the traditional analogue systems are becoming expensive to maintain when compared to the upstart internet delivered technology.

As communities come online with reliable internet it becomes much more cost effective to deliver mobile services to those areas. (femtocells and similar tech) however 'cost effective' still needs to have user demand to recoup costs. It is also important to note that in many area's demand is highly seasonal, but the cost to run is not, which means for many providers locations may run at a loss for most of the year). In my opinion having reliable internet is probably more valuable to remote communities than mobile reception given that most remote communication is via working radio which has a very low cost to run. Is generally very reliable and does not have built in obsolescence like mobile.

As someone who uses and works in tech I look forward to being off the grid when I get out in the bush because it means that my oncall is not going to interrupt my life. I also agree that people rely too heavily on technology, I know people who get serious (genuine) anxiety attacks being away from tech. That worries me at a social level, but makes me sleep well at night when I camp knowing that they are no bugging me.