Thread: Awful Outback mobile and internet service

As a rural resident, I don't set too high a premium on having mobile coverage, but the major requirement is to have adequate fixed services. These were not necessary when most people got their present homes and businesses, but increasingly businesses and especially governments expect you to have good internet, especially if you run a business or have children at school.

Since these requirements are imposed by governments at all levels (and allow them to save money on postage etc), it is not a big jump to expect governments to help meet this requirement now and especially in the future.

John

If you regularly travel through remote areas with no signal get a sat phone. Problem solved.

Ps. Mobile coverage may be great in Metro areas but there are also statistically more ******* . I'll have my crap phone and Internet, a sat phone and no traffic over a metro area any time

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

One of the reasons rural people move to the coast is because they feel ignored in the bush.

The reason I live in the bush is I like being ignored :thumbup:

Maybe they should reinstall the humble fixed line phone booth like they used to have instead of these fandangled mobile phone units that some need to have surgically removed from their ears. Nah people would vandalise them, then complain they are not working

Originally Posted by p38arover

In some ways I miss CDMA. I recall quite some years ago being in the high country and being able to make a call with my phone with no external antenna where others with high gain bullbar mounted aerials had no service.

I miss my ANALOGUE even more... Remember making a call on my old Nokia 636 that was, according to the farmer, an unbelievably obscene distance from the nearest phone tower...'..that-a-way...' Only had one bar reception, but was enough to make and continue a call.

I believe Analog - or maybe CDMA? - is still used in some parts of the US and Japan.. Or 'was' when it was switched off here. My understanding is that CDMA had a similar, but NOT equal range, but both superior to GSM's 'Tower-to-mobile' reliable-reception distance....

When the first "replacement" (GSM? or CDMA?) tower in Canberra was publicly commissioned, and some 'Polly' made a Big Issue of placing the first - Very Long Range mobile call...to "prove" the performance of the Analogue 'replacement'.... what the sycophantic press didn't know at the time was.... the output powers had been surreptitiously cranked up for the occasion... and this only leaked out via a Telecom Tech having a few extra ales afterwards...and was overheard.

CDMA is still used by some US carriers.

CDMA was good.
Sat phones sound good, but they're expensive to buy and operate.
Decentralization has failed in this country, which is why most people avoid living in the inland. If we want to populate the interior we have to make providing the services people seek a higher priority.
It's not just in phones either. Look at the way TV and radio operators have been allowed by changes to licensing regulations to scrap local content to as little as 45 minutes a week and replace it with centralised content. This has taken away localism in the media, and cost thousands of jobs in rural areas.
Another blow to regionalism has been the move to fly in-fly out workforces, with some companies said to actually reject job applicants if they live in the area and instead favour those from the coast.
The falling rural populations means they lose political power as well since MPs with vast electorates can ignore peoples' individual complaints because they are too scattered to organise an effective protest.
Climate change is also working rapidly to make the inland uninhabitable, so discouraging people from going there.
Meanwhile, we favoured metropolitan residents couldn't care less if the rural populations are dying out.
At this rate we'll end up like Saudi Arabia or simlar countries with vast empty interiors.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

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.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

CDMA was good.
Sat phones sound good, but they're expensive to buy and operate.
Decentralization has failed in this country, which is why most people avoid living in the inland. If we want to populate the interior we have to make providing the services people seek a higher priority.
It's not just in phones either. Look at the way TV and radio operators have been allowed by changes to licensing regulations to scrap local content to as little as 45 minutes a week and replace it with centralised content. This has taken away localism in the media, and cost thousands of jobs in rural areas.
Another blow to regionalism has been the move to fly in-fly out workforces, with some companies said to actually reject job applicants if they live in the area and instead favour those from the coast.
The falling rural populations means they lose political power as well since MPs with vast electorates can ignore peoples' individual complaints because they are too scattered to organise an effective protest.
Climate change is also working rapidly to make the inland uninhabitable, so discouraging people from going there.
Meanwhile, we favoured metropolitan residents couldn't care less if the rural populations are dying out.
At this rate we'll end up like Saudi Arabia or simlar countries with vast empty interiors.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

Having lived and worked in a number of remote locations, I feel the lack of Land Rover and Goldwing parts, accessories and services to be a greater detraction than a lack of mobile phone service. The Federal government will subsidise satphones to those who can justify their need.