Thread: Bloody Telstra

Originally Posted by jonesfam

For a large number of Australians who don't live in major towns or cities there is no choice of telco provider.
There is only one who operates in these areas.
So we do not have the options many do.
In saying that, the majority of people out here use Pre-Paid.
Jonesfam

Bingo.
I am happy to pay for the service provided. You can't match it with any other telco company out there.

Originally Posted by jonesfam

For a large number of Australians who don't live in major towns or cities there is no choice of telco provider.
There is only one who operates in these areas.
So we do not have the options many do.
In saying that, the majority of people out here use Pre-Paid.
Jonesfam

I am only 95km from Sydney CBD and I have no choice, even the much touted ubiquitous NBN can’t provide any service here. I have Telstra or satellite and wether I am eligible for the later seems to change every few years. Had it a couple of times in the past (Optus 20 years ago and some other mob I forget more recently) for data only and speed was no better than ADSL, which is appalling by current international standards. Now I have Telstra smart mobile off an antenna some 10kms away, and this has issues in poor weather conditions. This is post paid apart from equipment costs.., Still maintain a copper land line as this is a high fire danger area..

Originally Posted by travelrover

I am only 95km from Sydney CBD and I have no choice, even the much touted ubiquitous NBN can’t provide any service here. I have Telstra or satellite and wether I am eligible for the later seems to change every few years. Had it a couple of times in the past (Optus 20 years ago and some other mob I forget more recently) for data only and speed was no better than ADSL, which is appalling by current international standards. Now I have Telstra smart mobile off an antenna some 10kms away, and this has issues in poor weather conditions. This is post paid apart from equipment costs.., Still maintain a copper land line as this is a high fire danger area..

Get on board Starlink - Starlink

They’ve started taking orders in Australia for a rollout later in the year.

The satellites are only 300 to 600KM up so around 10 times closer than Skymuster geostationary satellites and there’s **** loads of them and 1000’s more to come, so it will form a grid circling the earth. Latency is around 20 to 40ms so ****s all over Skymuster in every way. Not sure on cost, probably won’t be cheap but will be a decent alternative to those who missed out on the NBN - of which there are plenty.

I should also point out when you are attempting to get support from one of the now fated offshore contact Centres, they have no idea what the ‘Telstra mobile smart antenna’ product is or where it sits.. is it mobile is it data? Can’t be both.., arrrr

I have wasted far too much of my life dealing with Telstra. Still trying to get my billing sorted, if there was a viable alternative I would be gone in a flash.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Get on board Starlink - Starlink

They’ve started taking orders in Australia for a rollout later in the year.

The satellites are only 300 to 600KM up so around 10 times closer than Skymuster geostationary satellites and there’s **** loads of them and 1000’s more to come, so it will form a grid circling the earth. Latency is around 20 to 40ms so ****s all over Skymuster in every way. Not sure on cost, probably won’t be cheap but will be a decent alternative to those who missed out on the NBN - of which there are plenty.

Quoted figures today are $800 plus shipping for equipment, and $138/m for unlimited data at 50-150Mbps. Right now they are accepting a limited number for beta testing, there is less than 24hrs per day coverage, reliability is unknown, support is out of California. So it is probably a little early to jump in for most people.

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Quoted figures today are $800 plus shipping for equipment, and $138/m for unlimited data at 50-150Mbps. Right now they are accepting a limited number for beta testing, there is less than 24hrs per day coverage, reliability is unknown, support is out of California. So it is probably a little early to jump in for most people.

Great info thanks. Yes there will be early adopters issues for sure I should think but if it goes along how it’s supposed to then they’ll be 1000’s more satellites in the years to come to give full coverage - will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Great info thanks. Yes there will be early adopters issues for sure I should think but if it goes along how it’s supposed to then they’ll be 1000’s more satellites in the years to come to give full coverage - will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Exactly! Should be supplying full service to anyone who wants to sign up by the end of the year. Note that their Australian radio frequency allocations only cover areas classified by ACMA as "rural and remote" - which seems to be anywhere in the country apart from the major cities and a relatively small area around them.

Also, there is no guarantee that they will not have to restrict data quantities as the number of users increases - their bandwidth is not unlimited. However, it should be pointed out that because the satellites are so much lower, the ground coverage of a single beam is quite small - and all the ground stations are not pointing at the same satellite - there is no reason for two close together ground stations to necessarily point at the same satellite at a particular time, and this will change dynamically. This all means the links are going to be a bit like point to point radio links rather than phone towers with several sharing the same frequency without interference.

I don't know just how they are managing it, and i rather doubt they will say except in very general terms, but my point is to emhasise how different it is from geostationary satellite systems. Or any other current system for that matter!

Originally Posted by JDNSW

I don't know just how they are managing it, and i rather doubt they will say except in very general terms, but my point is to emhasise how different it is from geostationary satellite systems. Or any other current system for that matter!

A year ago I was extremely sceptical. Now I can hardly wait. Musk is a visionary.
I don't see mobile internet service happening straight away, but the potential for overlanders is immense. Imagine having internet coverage on the CSR. Or the Simpson. The speed and size of the roll out is mind boggling. He's leaving OneWeb and Boeing in the dust.
In fact, I owe DiscoMick an apology. I pooh poohed his ideas about StarLink, but it's been exponential. Space-X already has over 1000 Starlink satellites in orbit, which is just nuts.
Oh yeah, one thing JD didn't mention is the much lower latency due to the lower orbit of the Starlink sats. Not really an issue for me, but for gamers it's huge. And, JD, they are managing it because the satellites are tiny, and they deploy heaps of the things per launch.